My main internet crush, Mixed Martial Arts fighter Roxanne Modafferi, made it onto ESPN Sportcenter‘s “Plays of the Week” segment in the #4 position. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the play in question was her getting dropped on her head and knocked cold by her opponent, Sarah Kaufman, Friday night in the Strikeforce Women’s 135lb title fight. Still, it’s good exposure for Roxy, Sarah and women’s MMA. In my opinion it was the best fight of the night.
Oh, and WAR ROXY!
We didn’t get to make the UFC 107 weigh-in this afternoon, but the fighters & UFC staff that I follow via social networking seem to be living it up in Memphis. They seem to have been eating continuously since dawn, yet still going strong. Claire & I are looking forward to seeing some good violence tomorrow night.
I really wanted to meet Frank Mir, one of my favorite fighters, but I will have to suffice with seeing him destroy “Cup Cheick” Kongo.
If you like watching athletes beat the living shit out of each other as much as Claire & I do, then August will be the best month of all 2009. The excellent MMA news/fan site Fightlinker compiled the rundown for us.
- Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett (Affliction 3 / August 1st)
- Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin (UFC 101 / August 8th)
- Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Randy Couture (UFC 102 / August 29th)
- Gina Carano vs Cris Cyborg (Strikeforce / August 15th)
- B.J. Penn vs. Kenny Florian (UFC 101 / August 8th)
- Gegard Mousasi vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral (Affliction 3 / August 1st)
- Josh Thomson vs Gilbert Melendez (Strikeforce / August 15th)
- Demian Maia vs Nate Marquardt (UFC 102 / August 29th)
- Keith Jardine vs Thiago Silva (UFC 102 / August 29th)
Congratulations to Bas Rutten for becoming an American citizen. He is a native of The Netherlands, retired Mixed Martial Arts fighter, submission wrestler & kickboxer. He has been doing color commentary for several MMA promotions, coaches & trains many fighters, hosts Inside MMA on HDNet and makes numerous cameo appearances in TV, movies and even video games. He is easily one of the most recognizable faces in the relatively new sport of MMA.
If you have the chance do check out his self defense video series, “Lethal Street Fighting” which might be more accurately named “Self Defense for 220lb Professional Submission Wrestlers/Kickboxers” but is well worth your time to see.
How sad is it that I learned as much about the origins of our current economic mess by watching that Mad Money host Jim Cramer dude on The Daily Show than I had by watching the network news every night? I’d hardly heard of that guy before he had a cameo in Iron Man.
On a more sour-er note, I’m feeling really bad about wishing the zany mad-cap TapouT Crew would kill themselves now that one of them sort of did. Ouch. That company and Charles Lewis Jr. in particular did a lot for the only non-shooting sport I follow, Mixed Martial Arts. To the rest of the TapouT Crew, sorry for your loss and try not to get yourselves perished. But, I still hate that fucking TV show.
In other bombshell news, Ken Shamrock pissed dirty after his first win in four years. So the Hall of Famer, formerly World’s Most Dangerous Man, has to take massive amounts of steroids to beat an obese man who would probably have just died by moving around for fifteen minutes anyway. If you want to see something funny and predictable yet still involving MMA watch Bully Beatdown on MTV. As it is on MTV it will probably feature very little music but is hosted by the always amusing Mayhem Miller.
Remember a few days ago when I begged you not to support the sleazy MMA promotion EliteXC and their parent organization Pro Elite? Well, you are off the hook. They have gone under, passed on, joined the choir invisible, and are bleedin’ deceased.
It is actually sad for a couple of reasons, all involving their stable of genuinely good fighters. Those are good folks who have to make a living and feed their families. Plus, they were the highest profile organization which features women’s MMA. The female contests were always, ALWAYS the best fight on the card.
While I’m glad that their slimy management and lowest common denominator promotions are out of the picture I do feel that less MMA, especially free MMA, on television is a bad thing.
I hope this new crop of free agent fighters find homes in other organizations soon, though this is going to get progressively harder as the field of organization thins out. How long until Affliction goes under?
Now it is official. All of my favorite MMA fighters are retired. Yesterday Jason “MayheM” Miller announced that he was hanging up his gloves, going out on a loss in the DREAM Middleweight Tournament semi-finals, with a total record of 21 win, 6 losses & 0 draws. Only 4 of his wins went to a decision.
I can’t really blame a guy for quitting a sport where you get smashed in the face and potentially choked into unconsciousness, but I will miss him. He was an interesting and amusing guy in a world that needs more interesting and amusing people. Plus, it was entertaining to see him visit extreme violence on people with a smile on his face. That’s hard to top.
I wonder what will become of his fan club, the Mayhem Monkeys.
Oh, in case you were curious, my other favorite fighter was Genki Sudo. See some of his highlights here. And, if you are reading this B., he actually fought & defeated Eric “Butterbean” Esch once. It’s right there on YouTube.
Do you keep up with Mixed Martial Arts? I do, and as a fan from way back I implore you: don’t support the EliteXC promotion. They put on shows under quite a few banners, some small venues, some for Showtime as well as the higher profile CBS Saturday Night Fights. In a sport that many don’t consider a sport at all and gets more bad press than seal clubbing, EliteXC is the sleaziest. I could tell you all about it but the footwork has been done by the guys over at Fightlinker.
A short history of EliteXC sketch
If you’re wondering why everyone is so ready to believe that EliteXC paid fighters more to stand with Kimbo – and not in an innocent ‘KO bonus’ kind of way – you might not be familiar with the history of sketch that EliteXC has carried with it from the start.
It’s really a shame they are so shady since they have some great talent under contract. Maybe the latest scandal will bankrupt them so the good fighters can move on. If, that is, the bad press doesn’t ruin the entire sport.
If you are interested in MMA you have undoubtedly heard of the Ultimate Fighting Championship or UFC. They have a fight coming up for their UFC91 event that should be quite an entertaining one. It features fan favorite and current heavyweight champion Randy Couture versus a man with a penis tattooed onto his chest.
