brashleyholland Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 I know this might sound like a stupid question... but how and why did he gain so much muscle in the first place? Or is it something else? The dude is just built that way. Short and stocky, little tank-like mo-fo! :-p He's been that way as long as I can remember him...you really can't get an idea of it by seeing him on TV. Huge legs, wide shoulders...a lot of his weight is there. Saying that, I bumped into Shirai on his morning run on the Friday...I remember being shocked that he was in the same weight class as Paul. Tiny dude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ampulator Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I don't think height is much a problem... but I can see a reach being a huge issue, But Daley's reach is 74, so... Wouldn't his short height make him harder to take down? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brashleyholland Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Couple of other notes from BAMMA - - Alex Reid was lording it up as expected...he'd been in town all week and at one point went backstage during the fights to film something - presumably a promo piece for a future show. - Hung out with many a cool/interesting person. Big Mike Passinier (of Mike's Gym fame) at the weigh-ins, trying my best to remember how to speak Dutch after a good four years away. He was hilarious, spent the entire thing mocking fighters junk, and telling the official that he'd need a bigger towel to hide a certain big black fighter's modesty when he had to completely disrobe when he got on the scales. - Someone who had the opposite problem to Paul Daley was Peter 'Slam' Duncan, who came into the weigh-ins staggering and swaying, literately looking like a zombie. He'd obviously got his cut seriously wrong, and could barely get on the scales. Then he took his shirt off. I have NEVER seen someone look so dried out before. If anyone remembers how bad James Irvin looked at the weigh-ins for the Sakara fight, it was worse than that. Sickening. Then as if to make matters worse, he stepped onto the scale and came in 2.6lbs UNDER the limit, causing the entire room to groan...well, everyone except Big Mike, who started doing an impression of Duncan, swaying and wobbling around the back of the room :-p On a serious note, Duncan should never have been allowed to fight. He was in no fit state ether at the weigh-in or on fight day, and suffered a brutal knee KO in his fight. Poor showing from BAMMA. - Ken Shamrock was in the house! Had a brief word, but he was staying tight-lipped on why he was there. Do NOT be surprised to see Ken vs Dave Batista at BAMMA 6 in London this May. Seriously. - Ryo Chonnan (the last man to properly beat Anderson Silva, with a flying heel-hook no less) was there as Yuya Shirai's head cornerman. He speaks a surprisingly large amount of English. - Joachim Hansen had to get into the cage to separate his boy Mohsen Bahari from Leeroy Barnes after their fight. Barnes had given some pretty inflammatory interviews in the run up to the fight, only to get stopped in 40 seconds. He then jumped up, clearly still out of it and wobbling all over the place, and pleaded an early stoppage, which angered Mohsen. - The MEN was empty. They had curtained off two thirds of the arena and the top deck was completely closed. So there was only the 'horseshoe' of the bottom deck open, and the floor seats. And it was still, I'd say...65% full. They announced the card on a month's notice, and only hired the PR firm 3 weeks beforehand...so I can cut them some slack...but they'll need a better showing at Wembley in May. - A personal gripe...it took me an hour from arriving at the arena to get my press credentials. How hard is it to leave an envelope at the desk? Worse than that...there was no actual press area set up, despite BAMMA contacting everyone on the press list two day prior to offer wi-fi dongles (as there was no wireless in the arena) and confirming that there would be powerpoints. So while we had nice cageside seats, I couldn't use my laptop to work. In fact, there was only one journalist there with a pen and pad to take notes. Everyone else just got drunk and ate hotdogs. Swings and roundabouts I guess. Note to BAMMA though, if you give me a £400 ticket for free, I'd really like to repay that by reporting on your show...it'd be just dandy if I had the facilities to do that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ampulator Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Under the limit? How's that possible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brashleyholland Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Under the limit? How's that possible? I didn't ask what went wrong (I'm not exaggerating, the dude didn't look like he was capable of a conversation at the weigh-ins), but my guess would be that he had a set of cheap or badly calibrated scales that he was using during his cut. So when he was killing himself to get rid of those last couple of pounds, he was probably already dead on 155-156. Oops! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daffanka Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Crusher has confirmed he's co-headlining the Diaz vs. Daley card that formerly held the rest of the quarter finals in the HWGP but got screwed up because Josh Barnett. I'd be upset about not getting to see Overeem fight except it's Kawajiri fighting on US soil against a good opponent who he beat last time and I think will beat again. Let the reckoning of the Crusher begin! Shooto supremacy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brashleyholland Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Crusher has confirmed he's co-headlining the Diaz vs. Daley card that formerly held the rest of the quarter finals in the HWGP but got screwed up because Josh Barnett. Yay for Kawajiri/Melendez and Daley/Diaz, two great fights. Also hearing Aoki/Thomson. Supposedly Takaya and Noons will feature on this card as well...hoping that Takaya isn't moving up to fight KJ, although with Mousasi/Kyle also rumoured, I can't see them going for a 6-fight card, so maybe that's what they're looking at? As for the Barnett thing, I don't blame him one iota for this mess that is the HW GP. 100% Scott Coker/Strikeforce's fault. *IF* (and I don't believe this for a second) the delay is due to not finding somewhere that Barnett can fight, then it's Strikeforce's fault for booking a thrice-busted, unrepentant drug user. If they at any point held out hope for him getting re-licensed in Cali, they should have dumped him the second he withdrew his application. The fact is, they gambled on Japan and didn't have a good alternative date in place for when it fell through. That's all it is. They could have held that April 9th show in any number of places, but they didn't. There's no excuse for such piss-poor organising. And the excuses...more time to promote? You had three months from announcing the GP. Want to capitalise on the momentum of the first round? Then don't leave a five month gap between it and the remaining quarter finals. I don't claim to be a profit, because even a blind man could have seen this one coming, but I said that this wouldn't work from the day it was announced. Absolute shambles by Strikeforce. GAAAAHHHH STRIKEFORCE DO SOMETHING RIGHT SO I CAN LOVE YOU!!!!!! :-D ...excuse me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ampulator Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 If it was Barnett, didn't they say other states are willing to let him fight if he passes the test? Or is that not true? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tag01 Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Wilcox-Damm-Satoshi-Ishii-Booked-for-Strikeforce-Challengers-15-30567 Ishii official for Strikeforce Challengers 15. He's fighting Scott Lighty at 205. Interesting fight, I'm still hopeful he can put it together. It will also have Fodor-Douglas and Damm-Wilcox, which are interesting fights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantabulous Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 If it was Barnett, didn't they say other states are willing to let him fight if he passes the test? Or is that not true? It would probably depend on the state. And given that the Barnett fight is in Texas, a state whose commission borders on comical, I'd bet the farm the delay is indeed because they needed to find a building available in a state that would license Barnett. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brashleyholland Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 It would probably depend on the state. And given that the Barnett fight is in Texas, a state whose commission borders on comical, I'd bet the farm the delay is indeed because they needed to find a building available in a state that would license Barnett. Basically, Cali require him to answer questions about his three previous failed tests before they re-licence him. He knew the process before his last hearing, but decided to claim that he was ambushed by the commission and needed legal advice. Apparently he thought he could just walk in there, say sorry and get reinstated. Unfortunately when you cost a commission tens of thousands of dollars by factoring in the cancellation of an event (and it's your third infraction), it's not that easy. Anyway, until he gets that situation ironed out (which after cancelling his application for re-licensing in Cali he clearly has no intention of doing in the immediate future), Nevada, New Jersey and Ohio wont touch him. Almost anywhere else, including numerous places they have run before, will...provided he pee's clean prior to the event. In fact, Coker reeled of a list of commissions who had confirmed that they would do this when he initially announced the GP in Jan. So the "We needed to find somewhere that would licence Josh" excuse makes no sense. There are more places that will let him fight than not; throw a dart at a map. I'm not saying that they planned to do the fights in Japan to avoid AC testing, but they did know when they held the April 9th date in Cali that if Japan fell through, they would be screwed. So why hold an April date in Cali for a proposed event featuring someone who can't fight there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ampulator Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Basically, Cali require him to answer questions about his three previous failed tests before they re-licence him. He knew the process before his last hearing, but decided to claim that he was ambushed by the commission and needed legal advice. Apparently he thought he could just walk in there, say sorry and get reinstated. Unfortunately when you cost a commission tens of thousands of dollars by factoring in the cancellation of an event (and it's your third infraction), it's not that easy. Anyway, until he's get that situation ironed out (which after cancelling his application for re-licensing in Cali he clearly has no intention of doing in the immediate future), Nevada, New Jersey and Ohio wont touch him. Almost anywhere else, including numerous places they have run before, will...provided he pee's clean prior to the event. In fact, Coker reeled of a list of commissions who had confirmed that they would do this when he initially announced the GP in Jan. So the "We needed to find somewhere that would licence Josh" excuse makes no sense. There are more places that will let him fight than not; throw a dart at a map. I'm not saying that they planned to do the fights in Japan to avoid AC testing, but they did know when they held the April 9th date in Cali that if Japan fell through, they would be screwed. So why hold an April date in Cali for a proposed event featuring someone who can't fight there? What about Oregon or Washington? Couldn't they hold an event at those places? Or are they chummy with CSAC too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantabulous Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Obvious question, but why wasn't this all sorted out before the GP started? Why wasn't everything in place to where, on the first GP show, Strikeforce could tell people the date and location of the other two first round fights? Common sense says that if you're going to do something like a major heavyweight Grand Prix, you have everything lined up and sorted before you go ahead with it and avoid things like this happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brashleyholland Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 What about Oregon or Washington? Couldn't they hold an event at those places? Or are they chummy with CSAC too? I was actually talking to someone a couple of days ago who told me straight up that Oregon have absolutely no issue with sanctioning Barnett. I'm not 100% on Washington, but I can't think of them ever being particularly picky when it comes to licensing guys off the top of my head... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brashleyholland Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Obvious question, but why wasn't this all sorted out before the GP started? Why wasn't everything in place to where, on the first GP show, Strikeforce could tell people the date and location of the other two first round fights? Common sense says that if you're going to do something like a major heavyweight Grand Prix, you have everything lined up and sorted before you go ahead with it and avoid things like this happening. There's your answer in bold. Strikeforce doesn't have any :-p Even Pride, who were notorious for finalizing most of their line-ups a week from fight day, had three/four buildings booked out and announced for the GP's from the start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantabulous Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Have we talked about the notion of Strikeforce running the Cowboy Stadium? Or the wonders of the Strikeforce message board? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brashleyholland Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 “Strikeforce is coming off a record pre-sale and impressive attendance for the kickoff of the grand prix at Izod Center in New Jersey that also drew a record viewership on Showtime for live MMA. To build on the tremendous momentum from New Jersey we needed the proper time to promote an event of this magnitude, which is why we have decided to continue the tournament on June 18 at American Airlines Center in Dallas, a venue that has been identified as one of the premier sports and entertainment venues in the U.S." That is from the official press release. I don't know who they're paying to come up with this crap, but if they ever need to replace him, I've got some monkeys with typewriters going cheap... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brashleyholland Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Have we talked about the notion of Strikeforce running the Cowboy Stadium? Or the wonders of the Strikeforce message board? Isn't that like, 100,000 seats? I saw a cool clip of someone playing Xbox on the big screen there :-p Lol, I've never actually seen the SF message board, I dread to think! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantabulous Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Lol, I've never actually seen the SF message board, I dread to think! Oh, dear lord, you are lucky. It's full of the most full on marks for a product you ever saw. I'm talking full on blinkers, maximum density marks. There's one person on there making post after post talking about Jim Jones throwing around his promotional muscle to make it a success, how the people in the area go there for anything, how he thinks they could easily get 50,000, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ampulator Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 If they wanted a West Coast show.... they could have done Oregon. Damn it, Strikeforce! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tag01 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 The UFC is wary about doing Cowboys stadium, so Strikeforce thinking about it is funny. And Jerry Jones is the owner of the Cowboys. Jim Jones ran a cult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brashleyholland Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 The UFC is wary about doing Cowboys stadium, so Strikeforce thinking about it is funny. And Jerry Jones is the owner of the Cowboys. Jim Jones ran a cult. Maybe if they went with Jim instead of Jerry, they'd have a better chance of filling the place :-p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantabulous Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 UFC on Versus was an excellent show and continued a trend of the free TV shows outshining the PPV efforts. Bowles guillotine on Page was sick and it was almost funny how the rematch had the exact same finish at the exact same time of the first fight. Sakara bleeding so much was crazy, so was using the referee's shirt to wipe away the blood and the cut itself was nasty. The Tavares finish was fantastic simply because Rogan was giving him a verbal BJ for the entire fight, totally dismissing Shane Rollers and burying him constantly, and then he throws the perfect punch and knocks Tavares silly. The main event was fantastic stuff. A fast paced fight with few slow moments, great action and it was very obvious when it went from a fight to a brawl because the vibe changed and it really did allow Diego to come back. I had it 29-28 Diego and it was comical to hear Rogan almost spaz out at the judges and call the decision a travesty. I think it came down to the second round because Kampmann easily won the first and Diego easily won the second. All in all, a great night of action and I am psyched, but wary, about Rua vs. Jones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoloftjunkie Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 It was a great show but I do feel like Kampman was robbed. I also think he was robbed in his fight with Shields. I wonder if this is the end of Joe Stevenson's run in UFC with his 3rd straight loss. I could see them giving him one more fight cause he usually puts on good fights but who knows. I am just hoping that Chris Lytle doesn't retire as he is a great fighter to watch. Heres my picks for tommrows Strikeforce show. Cavalcante over Hendo Coenen over Carmouche Kennedy over Manhoef (pulling for Manhoef but Kennedy is to good on the ground and that is Manhoef's kryptonite) Evangelista over Masvidal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brashleyholland Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 UFC on Versus was an excellent show and continued a trend of the free TV shows outshining the PPV efforts. Bowles guillotine on Page was sick and it was almost funny how the rematch had the exact same finish at the exact same time of the first fight. Sakara bleeding so much was crazy, so was using the referee's shirt to wipe away the blood and the cut itself was nasty. The Tavares finish was fantastic simply because Rogan was giving him a verbal BJ for the entire fight, totally dismissing Shane Rollers and burying him constantly, and then he throws the perfect punch and knocks Tavares silly. The main event was fantastic stuff. A fast paced fight with few slow moments, great action and it was very obvious when it went from a fight to a brawl because the vibe changed and it really did allow Diego to come back. I had it 29-28 Diego and it was comical to hear Rogan almost spaz out at the judges and call the decision a travesty. I think it came down to the second round because Kampmann easily won the first and Diego easily won the second. All in all, a great night of action and I am psyched, but wary, about Rua vs. Jones. Rogan really gets on my tits with his lavishing of praise on BJJ guys, or anyone who was once in the same room as Eddie Bravo. That in itself made it sweet to see the Tavares/Roller KO. Main event was great. Plenty of arguments to score it both ways. Personally I had Kampmann by virtue of effective striking and grappling, no problem at all with it going either way though. Saturday is going to be an great day for fights. M-1 Challenge free on M-1Global.com to kick things off, then Bellator, then Strikeforce. It's Showtime on Sunday to cap of a quality week of fights. Only problem is that Bellator overlaps with Strikeforce by an hour, so I'm gonna have to have a lappy hooked up to another TV for a bit of simulcast action, which will be annoying. Dumb move by MTV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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