Ivan's Blog--- Ivan Trembow's Self-Important, Random Rants on Mixed Martial Arts, Video Games, Pro Wrestling, Television, Politics, Sports, and High-Quality Wool Socks (original) (raw)
Featuring Ivan Trembow's Self-Important, Random Rants on Mixed Martial Arts, Video Games, Pro Wrestling, Television, Politics, Sports, and High-Quality Wool Socks
Monday, July 05, 2010
None of the fighters who competed on the two recent UFC events in the state of Nevada were asked to take out-of-competition drug tests prior to the events, according to Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer.
A total of 20 fighters competed on the UFC's "Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale" in Las Vegas on June 19, including one fighter who has previously tested positive for anabolic steroids (Chris Leben), but none of these 20 fighters had to take an out-of-competition drug test.
A total of 22 fighters competed at UFC 116 in Las Vegas on July 3, including two fighters who have previously tested positive for anabolic steroids (Chris Leben and Stephan Bonnar), but none of these 22 fighters had to take an out-of-competition drug test.
The question of whether any out-of-competition drug testing had been administered to any of the fighters on the UFC 116 card was first posed to Keith Kizer on Tuesday, June 29, but the question was not answered until Sunday, July 4, after the completion of the UFC 116 event.
Less than one month ago, there was a public meeting about the Nevada State Athletic Commission's drug testing program on June 9. At one point during the meeting, NSAC Commissioner and Chairwoman Pat Lundvall asked Travis Tygart, the head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, to evaluate the NSAC's current drug testing program. Tygart's paraphrased response was, "You can do better. You can do a lot better, and I ask you to do so on behalf of clean athletes."
Tygart added that when athletes are coming to USADA for drug testing because they know that the NSAC's drug testing is inadequate, something is wrong. Tygart would be referring to Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Shane Mosley, and there were also statements that were made a few weeks ago by Josh Koscheck indicating that he wants USADA testing for his upcoming UFC fight against Georges St. Pierre, to which St. Pierre reportedly agreed. However, UFC President Dana White later said in public interviews that Koscheck needs to "shut up" about his desire for USADA-level drug testing in his UFC fights.
In addition to the NSAC's lack of any blood-based drug testing, both Tygart and Dr. Robert Voy said at the June 9 meeting that there is a reliable, urine-based drug test for EPO that is not currently being used by the NSAC.
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 2:01 AM
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Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Info from today's meeting of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, to which I listened via teleconference:
Both Brock Lesnar's attorney/agent David Olsen and UFC executive Michael Mersch (who is also a former attorney for the NSAC) are arguing the case to the Nevada commission that Steve Mazzagatti should not be one of the referees considered for the upcoming Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin fight.
They are both arguing that Mazzagatti is biased against Brock Lesnar, and they both cited comments made by UFC president Dana White about Mazzagatti’s competence as grounds for Mazzagatti not being considered.
NSAC Commissioner and Chairwoman Pat Lundvall rejected their claims, so Mazzagatti’s name was officially still on the list of referees under consideration for the fight.
Fortunately from the perspective of Lesnar and the UFC, all of that was a moot point.
The referees are determined by NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer, who "recommends" the officials for title fights to the commissioners, and I have personally never heard a single instance of the commissioners not accepting his recommendation.
Kizer has never recommended Mazzagatti for a Lesnar fight since Lesnar's first fight against Frank Mir, and he didn't recommend Mazzagatti this time, either. He recommended Josh Rosenthal, and of course, the commissioners immediately and unanimously agreed.
What was different today is that instead of it just being the usual (Lesnar's attorney basically saying "we don't like Mazzagatti" because of the first Mir fight), this time UFC executive Michael Mersch also testified and he said that Steve Mazzagatti has a perceived bias AND an actual bias against Brock Lesnar.
I have never heard a promoter argue that before, and Commissioner Skip Avansino commented that he doesn't recall Zuffa ever saying this about any official in the past.
Commissioner/Chairwoman Lundvall seemed unconvinced and dismissed Mersch's allegations pretty clearly... but it was all Kabuki Theater because the appointment of officials is always based on who Keith Kizer recommends, and he recommended Josh Rosenthal.
...
The primary item on the agenda today, unrelated to the selection of officials for the upcoming UFC event, was a very lengthy discussion about drug testing in MMA and boxing.
Hopefully this isn't the case, but the forces of inertia and the status quo might prevent anything from actually changing.
The most anticipated speaker of the day, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) head Travis Tygart, is testifying now. His testimony could best be described as very politely explaining the shortcomings of the NSAC's drug testing system.
Tygart emphasized that you need to have both urine testing and blood testing in order to have a legitimate drug testing system that can detect various different kinds of banned substances.
The line of questioning by the NSAC's commissioners seemed to be trying to focus on the limits of blood testing and the things that it can't detect (ie, defending the status quo of Nevada's urine-only testing), but Tygart kept emphasizing that if you only have one or the other (only urine testing or only blood testing), you're missing out on detecting entire groups of banned substances.
Tygart added that even if the NSAC were to give itself the authority to order blood tests on fighters and then rarely use that authority, that would still be a big step in the right direction. Tygart said that just the fact that the NSAC would have the authority to order blood tests would act as a deterrent to cheaters, and it would be up to the NSAC to decide how frequently or infrequently these blood tests would be ordered.
Another point that Tygart made is that when a fighter is ordered to take an out-of-competition drug test under the NSAC's current system and the fighter has 24 or 48 hours to submit a urine sample from the time when they are notified, that is plenty of time for any drug-savvy fighter to beat a drug test. Under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and USADA standards, athletes must either submit to a drug test immediately, or the athlete must not leave the sight of the inspector until the athlete has submitted a sample.
The NSAC's commissioners appear to be getting a bit defensive, as Commissioner Avansino defensively told Tygart, "We at the Nevada State Athletic Commission have been devoted to random drug testing for years!"
Travis Tygart referred to "the money excuse" and said to the NSAC commissioners (paraphrasing), "The money is there. You just have to decide how you want to prioritize it. You could take one dollar, or one percent, from every PPV buy of the Mayweather/Mosley fight and that could fund your drug program for the next five years."
I feel that it's starting to get more contentious now. Commissioner Lundvall asked Tygart to evaluate the NSAC's current drug testing program, and Tygart said (paraphrasing), "You can do better. You can do a lot better, and I ask you to do so on behalf of clean athletes."
Tygart said that when athletes are coming to him for drug testing because they know the NSAC's drug testing is inadequate, something is wrong. Tygart would be referring to Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Shane Mosley, and there were also statements that were made recently by Josh Koscheck indicating that he wants USADA testing for his upcoming UFC fight against Georges St. Pierre, to which St. Pierre reportedly agreed.
(Update: UFC president Dana White later said in public interviews that Josh Koscheck needs to "shut up" about his desire for USADA-level drug testing in his UFC fights.)
Earlier, a doctor who works for the NSAC, Dr. David Watson, started his testimony by saying that anyone who wanted to pass an NSAC drug test could do so very easily just by injecting clean urine into their bladder, and then urinating out the clean sample in front of an NSAC inspector...
... and Dr. Watson eventually ended his testimony by saying (paraphrasing), "We're doing a great job!" and saying that the NSAC shouldn't be changing its drug testing protocols at this time. Maybe it's just me, but that seemed like an odd thing to say, given how easy Dr. Watson said it is for fighters to beat NSAC drug tests.
Dr. Watson did suggest that one possible solution to the "fighters injecting clean urine into their bladder" problem would be if the NSAC required that a fighter give one urine sample (which could be their own urine, or it could be urine that they had injected into their bladder); and then after the fighter's bladder was empty, then the NSAC inspector would have to wait for potentially an hour or more in order to receive another urine sample, which would theoretically be the fighter's own urine because the fighter would have had no opportunity to give themselves any additional bladder injections.
Of course, the problem with this suggestion is the difficulty of establishing when exactly a fighter has an "empty bladder." What would stop a fighter from injecting his bladder with clean urine, providing a urine sample without fully emptying his bladder, and then releasing the rest of the clean urine 30 or 60 minutes later?
Another witness was Las Vegas-based Dr. Robert Voy, who (like Travis Tygart) talked about the fact that there is a reliable, urine-based test for EPO that the NSAC is not currently using. Dr. Voy said that this would cost 400to400 to 400to500 per test, although Tygart later said that those amounts sounded very high to him.
Though Dr. Voy did not get into this, 400to400 to 400to500 per test is more than the NSAC currently spends on drug tests, but when you think about how much money the NSAC brings in just from the percentage of the live gates of big boxing and MMA events, it would be nothing in the big picture.
Dr. Voy also said some ridiculous things about the need for EPO testing (or the lack of need for it), such as saying that he doesn't think EPO is a performance-enhancing drug in boxing because endurance is not that important in boxing.
Also, as Tygart said when he was discussing the same urine-based EPO test (which all parties agreed was a rock-solid, reliable test), urine samples can only be tested for EPO at World Anti-Doping Agency-approved labs.
Unlike its neighbors to the west, the Nevada State Athletic Commission does not currently use WADA-approved labs (it uses Quest labs for fight night drug testing, and it uses LabCorp for out-of-competition drug testing). The California State Athletic Commission does use WADA-approved labs for "B" samples if the "A" sample comes back positive.
In the end, no resolutions were made today and no changes were promised, nor was any time frame given when something might be done. The discussion about drug testing was not an "action item" on today's meeting agenda. It was just an information-gathering item on the agenda.
Labels: Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 8:46 PM
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Sunday, December 06, 2009
Thoughts on the Finale of The Ultimate Fighter 10
by Ivan Trembow
First and foremost, I can't believe that one of the judges actually had Kimbo Slice winning his atrocious fight against Houston Alexander by the score of 30-27, which means that particular judge had Kimbo winning all three rounds.
How do you win a round without doing anything other than getting leg-kicked by your opponent repeatedly? Slice landed almost nothing in the first round, while Alexander landed numerous good leg kicks. If neither fighter is being particularly aggressive, but one of them is actually landing numerous strikes and the other isn't, how can the fighter who wasn't landing the strikes win the round? Alexander wasn't doing much, but Slice was doing far less.
A scorecard of 29-28 in favor of Kimbo is wrong, but 30-27 in favor of Kimbo warrants nothing less than an investigation into the judge who turned in that scorecard.
Apparently, the awfulness of the Kimbo fight is going to be blamed on Houston Alexander, as Dave Meltzer wrote in his recap, "[UFC president] Dana [White] just said he thinks Kalib Starnes was working Houston's corner. I sense Alexander is on the endangered species list."
Who is going to get blamed for the next Kimbo fight being awful, and the one after that, and the one after that?
This show also featured two of the dumbest moments in recent UFC announcing history.
First, how could Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan act like Jon Jones won his fight when Matt Hamill could not continue? Jones landed four illegal elbows, he got called for the illegal elbows, he got a point taken away for the illegal elbows, and Goldberg and Rogan were just discussing the illegal elbows, and then when it became clear that Hamill couldn't continue, why they were acting like Jones won all of a sudden?
It doesn't take a rocket scientist (or even a seasoned MMA announcer, for that matter) to know that if one fighter lands an intentional strike on his opponent and it's an illegal strike (or four), and the fighter on the receiving end of the fouls cannot continue, then it's a disqualification.
Also, on a night that featured the Eric Bischoff of the 2000s (Dixie Carter) sitting next to Eric Bischoff himself, at a show promoted by the Vince McMahon of the 2000s, Mike Goldberg put the icing on the cake with this line: "If you're not a fan of Hulk Hogan, then you're not a fan of entertainment or sports!"
More great work by the Nevada State Athletic Commission's doctors (nothing gets past them): Mike Goldberg said that Matt Veach had herniated discs (which would be in his neck or back). So, add "herniated discs" to the long list of injuries that have somehow eluded the eagle eyes of the NSAC's doctors (a list that also includes broken feet; broken hands; torn ACLs; torn shoulders; and severe, hospitalization-requiring staph infections).
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:48 AM
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Sunday, November 22, 2009
UFC 106 Turns into an Embarrassment for the Nevada State Athletic Commission
by Ivan Trembow
In the big picture, beyond the things that happen on most MMA events (some fights are good, some fights are bad, etc.), UFC 106 was a very bad event, not for the UFC or for the fans, but for the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
First of all, 48 hours before the show even took place, Karo Parisyan withdrew from his fight against Dustin Hazelett because (according to one of Parisyan's own coaches in an interview on Five Ounces of Pain) Parisyan has a serious problem with painkiller addiction. Parisyan did not want to fight with painkillers in his body and subsequently test positive for painkillers (which he would have, unless the NSAC inexplicably failed to drug-test a prior offender after his fight, like they just did when Sean Sherk fought in Nevada in May).
This left Hazelett, who has spent the last couple months of his life preparing for the Parisyan fight, without an opponent, and if there were fans who bought tickets to see Parisyan vs. Hazelett, they were out of luck.
All of that could have been avoided if the NSAC's out-of-competition drug testing program had been used to test Parisyan, whom the NSAC certainly had probable cause to test, not that they even need probable cause. They can drug-test any licensee that they want, anytime that they want.
Based on the facts that Parisyan was taking painkillers in the weeks leading up to the fight and that there was no positive drug test announced regarding Parisyan, that means the NSAC chose not to test Parisyan in the weeks leading up to UFC 106.
If the NSAC had tested Parisyan in the weeks leading up to the fight, Parisyan would have either pulled a Nick Diaz and pulled out of the fight at that time, or he would have tested positive for banned substances (ie, prescription painkillers) and would have been removed from the fight. Either way, there would have been several weeks to find a replacement opponent to fight Hazelett, instead of 48 hours.
Then there was the Ben Saunders vs. Marcus Davis fight. After Saunders knocked out Davis, he landed another punch to the head of his already unconscious opponent, which was perfectly legal because the referee hadn't intervened... but then, after the referee stopped the fight and was trying to pull Saunders off of Davis, Saunders landed another punch on the still-unconscious Davis, which is absolutely not legal.
Punching your unconscious opponent after the referee has already started pulling you off of him should at the very least be grounds for a fine, even if it were to just be a nominal fine in order to establish that it's not acceptable behavior.
But what is the NSAC going to do about this? Based on recent history, the most likely answer is "absolutely nothing." When Quinton Jackson landed two punches on an unconscious Wanderlei Silva after the referee was clearly and unambiguously pulling Jackson off of Silva (in December 2008), the NSAC did nothing. Given that the NSAC didn't think that Jackson's actions warranted any punishment of any kind, I don't think that they will do anything about Saunders' actions. (A request for comment from the NSAC on this particular matter is currently pending, and I will update this post when or if the NSAC comments.)
Most embarrassing of all for the NSAC may have been the mess of the Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson fight. After Johnson landed an illegal knee to the head of Koscheck when he was grounded and also poked him in the eye, Koscheck was grabbing his eye and saying that he couldn't see.
Referee Mario Yamasaki, who is not exactly the best referee in the business (he has made a career out of dangerously late stoppages such as Silva vs. Irvin, Lawler vs. Ninja, and many others), was quick to re-affirm his "safety first" reputation by repeatedly asking Koscheck, "Do you need me to call a doctor?"
You'd think that would be Day 1 stuff in Referee Training. If someone just ate an illegal knee to the head and got poked in the eye, they're clutching their eye and saying that they can't see, calling the ringside doctor into the cage should be one of the first things that you do as a ref.
The referee and the doctor are there to protect the fighters, often protecting them from themselves. If you think that the doctor should take a look at the fighter, you call the doctor into the ring, period. You certainly don't ask the fighter if he'd like a doctor.
Yamasaki finally called an NSAC-licensed doctor into the cage, at which point Koscheck told the doctor that he still couldn't see clearly and was experiencing blurred vision. The doctor could then be heard telling Yamasaki that Koscheck had blurred vision and that the fight could not continue. Yamasaki then said, "But he still has five minutes, right?" The doctor's reply was essentially, "I don't know." Yamasaki's reply to that was essentially, "I don't know."
So, the doctor and the ref each demonstrated that they don't know the rules of the sport, as they both make it clear that they have no idea whether a fighter has five minutes to recover in such a situation, or whether the five-minute rule is only for low blows.
Then, without the doctor having spoken to Koscheck again, the doctor left the cage and Yamasaki could be heard saying to Koscheck, "Are you ready? Are you ready?" and Koscheck apparently said yes, so Yamasaki resumed the fight.
So, to recap, in the span of 30 seconds, the situation went from the doctor telling Yamasaki that the fight could not continue, to Yamasaki asking Koscheck, "Are you ready?" and resuming the fight, all apparently without Koscheck and the doctor speaking any further.
Adding to the embarrassment for the NSAC was yet another case of a fighter with a major injury getting cleared to fight by the NSAC's doctors, as Forrest said after his fight against Tito Ortiz that he went into the fight with a broken foot, and Ortiz said that he had issues with bulging discs in his back. There have been countless cases of the NSAC clearing fighters to compete who are in need of major surgery, and in the case of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira last December, he not only needed knee surgery, but he also had a severe staph infection that hospitalized him not long before the fight.
If the NSAC was serious about making sure that fighters don't lie to the NSAC's doctors during pre-fight exams and go into fights with major injuries or illnesses, there would be actual consequences for doing so.
It is indeed against the rules of the NSAC for a licensee to lie to an NSAC doctor about pre-fight injuries, and the NSAC re-affirmed this fact at a public meeting earlier this year.
However, until someone likes Griffin or Ortiz gets suspended or fined for lying to the athletic commission's doctors about major injuries, it's going to keep on happening, in great part due to the lack of consequences.
Finally, if there's one thing that you can count on in MMA, it's that the Three Stooges of MMA Judging (Glenn Trowbridge, Abe Belardo, and Dalby Shirley) will continue to be incompetent. I'm not suggesting that there are only three incompetent judges in MMA, because the last few months alone have demonstrated that's not the case, but Trowbridge, Belardo, and Shirley have historically been as bad as they come.
Shirley has an extensive record of shameful judging in both boxing and MMA that will be hard for anyone to match.
Belardo inexplicably scored the first Griffin vs. Ortiz fight in favor of Ortiz, 30 to 27, meaning that he thought that Ortiz won all three rounds.
Finally, Trowbridge has just added to his legacy of incompetence by somehow scoring the second Griffin vs. Ortiz fight in favor of Ortiz. Common sense dictates that as long as there are no consequences for MMA judges' incompetence, there will continue to be many incompetent judges in the sport.
Other UFC 106-Related Thoughts
Tito Ortiz is now 0-3-1 in his last four fights and should not be put anywhere near the main event of a $45 pay-per-view event unless he goes on a long winning streak.
The end result of Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson was exactly what it should have been for a fight with someone who has Koscheck's ground skills going against someone who has Johnson's ground skills.
Koscheck's decision to stand up and trade strikes with Johnson for so long in a misguided outburst of machismo could have easily gotten him knocked out, and it makes no sense in the context of trying to win the fight, given how good Johnson's kickboxing is and how mediocre his ground game is.
As for why Koscheck would do such a thing, it's no mystery. The UFC often rewards that kind of behavior with their kickboxing-happy Fight of the Night Award bonuses, and surprise, surprise... Koscheck vs. Johnson was determined by UFC management to be the Fight of the Night at UFC 106.
On the bright side, Paulo Thiago vs. Jacob Volkmann ended up being a damn good, back-and-forth, very close grappling battle with plenty of big shifts in momentum.
I also enjoyed the display of great Jiu-Jitsu skills from George Sotiropoulos, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira's impressive UFC debut.
UPDATE at 5:30 PM: I previously asked the NSAC's Executive Director, Keith Kizer, the following questions about the out-of-competition drug testing for UFC 106: "How many fighters on the UFC 106 card were tested under the NSAC's out-of-competition drug testing program, what are the names of the aforementioned fighters, and what are the test results of those fighters?" Kizer's response: "None." That has been the case for the vast majority of events since the program was instituted.
Kizer also confirmed that the NSAC will not be taking any action (a fine or otherwise) against Ben Saunders, even though he punched his unconscious opponent in the head again after the referee was already pulling him off. That's not exactly reassuring, given the fact that the NSAC's job, first and foremost, is to protect the fighters.
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 5:42 AM
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Thursday, October 08, 2009
More Bad Than Good at Dream 11 in Japan; and Junie Browning Gets Arrested After More than a Year of His Behavior Being Rewarded
by Ivan Trembow
I have been a bit puzzled by the online reaction to a couple of things related to the recent Dream 11 event in Japan.
Apparently, Shinya Aoki was somehow protected and it was somehow a crime for him to get time to recover after getting kicked in the groin. Really? The instant replays used a reverse camera angle from which you couldn’t actually see Joachim Hansen's foot hit Aoki's groin, but if you go back and look at the original camera angle as it happened live, it’s clear as day that he was kicked in the groin.
Are fighters not supposed to get a break to recover when they get kicked in the groin? The fact that Hansen kicked Aoki twice in the head after kicking him once in the groin doesn’t change the fact that Aoki was kicked in the groin.
Also, the Bibiano Fernandes vs. Hiroyuki Takaya fight was apparently a Fight of the Year candidate. Really? I didn’t come away from the fight with that feeling at all. I thought it was a good fight, but a Fight of the Year candidate? No way.
Apparently following in the footsteps of C.B. Dollaway, Joe Warren lost by submission and then tried to claim that he didn't tap out, even though it certainly appeared that he did (with his fingers). Even if, hypothetically, Warren hadn't tapped at all, his arm was in such a position that the referee would have been completely justified to stop the fight at that moment by technical submission, because otherwise Warren could have suffered a major arm/elbow injury.
On the whole, there was far more bad than good with this event. The "good" was the Aoki-Hansen fight and the Featherweight Grand Prix.
The "bad" was the embarrassing mismatches given to Kazushi Sakuraba and Tatsuya Kawajiri, as well as the awful Hong-Man Choi vs. Ikuhisa Minowa fight and the predictably one-sided fight between Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou and Bob Sapp (although at least the Sokoudjou-Sapp fight didn’t appear to be a badly-worked pro wrestling match with a pre-determined ending, which is more than I can say for Sapp’s previous fight in the Super Hulk Tournament against Minowa).
I know that this "Super Hulk Tournament" crap is the key to Dream's success in the ratings on Japanese TV, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. The same could be said of EliteXC putting Kimbo Slice in fight after fight on major events, and I didn’t support that, either.
Junie Browning Gets Arrested After More than a Year of His Behavior Being Rewarded
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting the sad news that infamous Ultimate Fighter 8 contestant Junie Browning tried to harm himself by overdosing on anti-anxiety medication, and then attacked three nurses after he was taken to the hospital.
Browning was arrested and charged with battery on a health care provider, and he was shortly thereafter released by the UFC. Browning's coach, Shawn Tompkins, has subsequently said in interviews that Browning was not merely trying to "harm" himself by overdosing, but was actually "trying to take his own life."
The UFC did not release Quinton Jackson after he endangered numerous pedestrian's lives in a Monster Truck in July 2008; nor did the UFC release Jon Koppenhaver when he was convicted of assault for punching and choking a man unconscious (Koppenhaver was only released after his comments about the late Evan Tanner); nor has the UFC released repeat criminal Josh Neer (who should be serving a prison sentence right now instead of fighting on the main card of a PPV event in two weeks).
The fact is, committing a serious crime doesn't usually cause a fighter to be released by the UFC, so it's much more likely that the attempted suicide aspect of Browning's incident is the primary factor behind the UFC's decision to release Browning from his contract.
As you may recall, Browning repeatedly became drunk and violent in the fighters' house during the filming of The Ultimate Fighter 8. During the filming of TUF 8, Browning threw a glass at Kyle Kingsbury; got into a poolside scuffle with Ryan Bader; jumped over the Octagon fence and went after Efrain Escudero in an aggressive manner immediately after Escudero defeated Shane Nelson in an NSAC-sanctioned match; threw a glass at Shane Primm's head; and threw two punches at Primm.
Fighters have been kicked off of The Ultimate Fighter for doing far less in the way of rule-breaking, but Browning was not kicked off of the show or released by the UFC for any of these incidents, nor did the UFC release him when he was eliminated from the TUF 8 lightweight tournament in a one-sided fight.
Instead, Browning was rewarded by the UFC, which gave him the one and only main card fight on the live finale that involved TUF 8 contestants who were not tournament finalists.
I wrote about the UFC's decision to reward Browning for his behavior at the time in the following article: Sleazeball Promoters and Trash TV: What The Ultimate Fighter Has Become.
Browning's own coach on TUF 8, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir, said at the time, "Putting him on the main card, it does reward his behavior. It shows people that if you act like a moron or idiot, you'll get face time. That equals money, so it's creating a shortcut, and they don't have to invest as much time into fighting... I realize that Spike has to sell TV time, and I understand that's part of the whole game, but as far as me as a martial artist, I find it an insult."
Rather than being released by the UFC at any of the aforementioned times, hitting rock bottom, and realizing that he needed help with his addictions, Browning was rewarded every step of the way. It's sad that it took an arrest and an attempted suicide for the UFC to finally stop rewarding Browning's behavior. Hopefully, Browning will now get on the road to recovery.
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 6:04 AM
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Kimbo Slice Dominated by Roy Nelson, UFC Very Impressed with Kimbo Slice
by Ivan Trembow
Well, Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson has had his chance on The Ultimate Fighter, and in the first round of the 16-man tournament, he lost to Roy Nelson by TKO. The fight itself wasn't as ugly as the heavyweight fight on the previous episode of The Ultimate Fighter, but it was pretty ugly in its own right.
So, THAT is the fight that caused UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta to tell the L.A. Times Blog last week, "We've been very impressed with Kimbo’s performance"? What a joke.
And that's the fight that caused Dana White to tell the L.A. Times Blog last week, "Are you going to see Kimbo Slice fight again in the UFC? Yes," as well as, "The ratings do not influence our decision. The guy can either fight or not" (a quote which leaves no explanation for Junie Browning's continued UFC employment).
I was surprised to see the fight go that way, given Fertitta and White's public statements. What is not at all surprising is White's child-like behavior when his favored fighter lost. "Roy Nelson did just enough to win!" White exclaimed. Really? Because it sure seemed like he shut down and TKO’ed the fighter around whom White built a whole season of The Ultimate Fighter.
And Roy Nelson's 44 unanswered punches on Kimbo's head at the end of the first round reminded Dana White of his daughter playfully punching him? That was just an unnecessary low blow by a man who continues to feel no shame from constantly insulting the professional fighters who work for him.
Of course, whether or not Kimbo got TKO'ed in his fight first isn't what really matters, right? It's the ratings. The UFC and Spike TV have gone from publicly mocking Kimbo and even Kimbo's ratings-drawing power in press releases and public statements when he was fighting for EliteXC, to now fully using that ratings-drawing power for themselves, even though he's still not actually much of a fighter.
Despite saying before this season of TUF that the only way Kimbo would be a UFC fighter is if he went on TUF and won the tournament, the UFC has now amended that position, affirming what many people thought all along, which is that Kimbo is going to be a UFC fighter in the future, no matter how poorly he performs on TUF.
The biggest farce of all is the fact that Kimbo is still going to be a UFC fighter in the future, despite that performance, and despite his performance against Seth Petruzelli, despite the claim that the UFC would never push an un-talented fighter for ratings purposes.
I also want to be clear that I have nothing against Kimbo personally; he has just taken the opportunities that have been given to him. The problem is the con-men who have pushed Kimbo far more than his talent has warranted, from the beginning of his career to now and well into his future career in the UFC.
So, what's the over/under on how much money it would be worth for the UFC if one of the other contestants on the show just happened to come down with an injury that caused them to have to withdraw from the competition, which would lead to another contestant coming back (like, I don’t know, maybe Kimbo Slice). They already hinted at that in the preview for the next episode. Let the "farce" continue.
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:20 PM
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Sunday, August 30, 2009
Thoughts on Nogueira/Couture Fight; Oregon Athletic Commission's Doctors
by Ivan Trembow
Last night's fight between two of MMA's all-time greats, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Randy Couture, a fight which Nogueira won via a one-sided unanimous judges' decision, was a wildly exciting, hard-fought, gutsy fight. At the same time, it was sad to see just how far both fighters have fallen.
When Couture got knocked down in previous fights, it was against fighters with a lot of power (Chuck Liddell, Brock Lesnar). In this fight, he was repeatedly knocked down and almost out, against a man who has never been known to have strong punching power (Nogueira certainly has strong punching technique, but not strong punching power).
As for Nogueira, the lengendary chin that was missing in the Frank Mir fight was back in the Couture fight, but that was about it. In his previous couple of fights and also in the Couture fight, Nogueira’s reflexes were gone, his defense was gone, his head movement was gone, and he was moving like he was underwater. Just because he looked much better than Couture doesn't mean that he looked good in the fight.
In the Couture fight, even Nogueira's legendary submission-finishing ability was missing against an opponent who was semi-conscious at the time of the Round 1 submission attempt (and someone like Nogueira losing their submission-finishing ability would be the equivalent of a knockout artist losing their power). The drastically diminished reflexes and movement are far more troubling, though.
So, for me, while it was a very exciting fight to watch, it was also sad to watch.
On another note, there seemed to be repeated instances of questionable judgment by the doctors of Oregon’s athletic commission last night.
The doctors allowed Ed Herman to continue on to Round 2 even though he clearly had a badly injured knee, only for Herman to predictably suffer an even worse knee injury seconds into Round 2.
That wasn’t the only case of a fighter being sent out for another round who might not have been medically fit to continue. From Bryan Alvarez’ play-by-play of the Mike Russow vs. Justin McCully fight on f4wonline.com: "So the second round was about to start and as McCully was getting out of his chair he stumbled. They stopped the clock between rounds and brought the doctor into the ring and he looked at McCully, asked some questions, and then shook his head no. The fans started booing. So the doctor pushed him sideways and McCully couldn’t keep his base. Doctor did it again, same thing. More booing. And they booed and booed and the next thing you know, they took the stools out of the ring and THE FIGHT CONTINUED. Everyone in press row was wondering what the hell this was all about."
The judgment of the Oregon athletic commission’s doctors looks even worse as a result of this line in Sherdog's post-fight press conference recap: "[UFC president Dana] White said nobody went to the hospital when asked if Tim Hague was OK following his loss to Todd Duffee."
I'm assuming that White meant nobody in the Hague-Duffee fight went to the hospital, because it couldn’t possibly be the case that nobody on the entire card went to the hospital (especially given that several fighters were knocked out cold, an unconscious Chris Leben had a seizure in the cage, etc.). If it's accurate that the Oregon athletic commission's doctors didn't send Hague to the hospital for testing after his knockout loss, that is a travesty.
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:24 PM
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Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thoughts on Fedor/UFC Negotiations
by Ivan Trembow
I continue to be amazed by the fact that in the eyes of the "clapping seals" who must be proud to put forth the UFC’s agenda on any given issue, Fedor Emelianenko's entire legitimacy as a fighter is riding on whether or not he accepts whatever it is that the UFC is offering him.
News flash: Even if Fedor retired from MMA tomorrow and never fought again, he would go down in history as the fighter who was the #1 heavyweight in the world for six straight years (from 2003 to 2009), and arguably the greatest fighter in MMA's history up to this point (of course, as with any G.O.A.T. in any sport, there's no assurance that another athlete wouldn't eventually replace him in that position).
But don’t tell that to the "clapping seals." To them, one successful title defense can prompt questions of who can possibly stop a UFC champion, while Fedor is both illegitimate and irrelevant if he doesn’t sign with the UFC... and he's not just illegitimate and irrelevant in 2009, but it also means that the last six years never happened.
Of course, if every fighter's legitimacy and relevance as a fighter is determined by whether or not they accept whatever it is that the UFC is offering them, that adds a tremendous amount of leverage to the UFC's side and takes a tremendous amount of leverage away from the side of all fighters. That's a big part of the reason why the UFC and its surrogates tend to portray it as though any fighter, even Fedor, is irrelevant if he doesn't accept whatever it is that the UFC is offering.
Yesterday, the UFC leaked out inflated contract numbers through one of their friends in the media (the Carmichael Dave Show), claiming that Fedor was offered $5 million per fight for six fights. The Pavlovian response to the UFC's leak of inflated dollar figures has worked far better than the UFC could have possibly hoped. One little leak and now it's being regarded almost everywhere as the undeniable truth. Wow, that was easy.
Inflated dollar figures are the easiest thing in the world to leak out in an effort to put pressure on the other side, because of the obligatory, "OMG, he turned down that much money!" response, which is exactly the response that the UFC's leak has produced on a massive scale.
In fact, dollar figures have never been a major factor in holding up the UFC/Fedor negotiations. In 2007, the UFC offered a guarantee of $1.5 million per fight, and Fedor's side was understandably happy with that figure. It wasn't the money that held up the deal, and I'd be shocked if that's what is holding up the deal now. There are more important things than dollar figures, such as not having the standard UFC contractual clause that auto-renews the contract for life if you're a champion. Leaking out such an inflated dollar figure is very transparent on Zuffa's part.
Regarding the champion's clause in UFC contracts, it renews one year at a time, and does it so indefinitely, until the champion loses the title. If it expired after just 12 months, Randy Couture would have been a free agent in August 2008. Rob Maysey, who has written more about UFC contracts than anyone, confirms regarding the champion's clause that the "UFC version, as drafted, keeps renewing."
Here's more information from someone who (unlike Carmichael Dave) actually is a credible source, the author of what is widely regarded as the best book about MMA (Jonathan Snowden): The guarantee per fight offered by the UFC was less than the guarantee per fight in the Affliction contract (roughly $1.5 million). But don't let that stop anyone from spreading misinformation. Zach Arnold wrote a very good article about this here.
If Fedor ever wanted to fight the champion's clause in court as Randy Couture did for a year before giving up, there would be a solid 18-to-24 months from the time that the lawsuit was filed to the trial date, and even then, there is no guarantee that he’d win in a Nevada court system with judges like the Xyience/Bergeron case judge who got elected with campaign money from UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta (that is not a secret, a rumor, or a conspiracy theory, as the judge publicly thanked the Fertittas on his web site for their contributions to his election campaign).
There are currently more highly-ranked heavyweight fighters in the UFC than there are outside of the UFC, but let’s not act like there are NO highly-ranked heavyweight fighters outside of the UFC. Even with Josh Barnett out of the picture, other top-15-ranked heavyweights who are not in the UFC include Brett Rogers, Alistair Overeem, Jeff Monson, Fabricio Werdum, and Andrei Arlovski, only one of whom Fedor has already beaten (Arlovski).
That's a stronger heavyweight division than the UFC had a few years ago (a UFC heavyweight division that Dana White now says completely sucked), but it’s still not as good as the UFC's current heavyweight division. Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Mirko Cro Cop are all closer to the end than they are to their primes, and Fedor beat Nogueira and Cro Cop in their primes, but Brock Lesnar beating the Shane Carwin/Cain Velasquez winner would indeed be another big achievement and I would look forward to that fight.
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 4:46 PM
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Sunday, July 12, 2009
Post-UFC 100 Thoughts
by Ivan Trembow
-I realize that Brock Lesnar is just playing a heel pro wrestling character, but the casual fans who make up a big percentage of the audience for such a huge show wouldn't know that. They would just think that's how the UFC Heavyweight Champion behaves. You don't have to play a trashy heel pro wrestling character to be a superstar, and one doesn't need to look any further than Georges St. Pierre on the very same event for evidence of that.
-The clip of Brock Lesnar screaming in his semi-conscious opponent's face and then slobbering all over the camera like a bad 1980s pro wrestler made it onto the overnight SportsCenter. So did the clip of Dan Henderson punching his already-unconscious opponent's head.
Between these two things and the recent E:60 segment about Dana White's obscene rant, I don't think that the average ESPN viewer has a very good impression of MMA at this point. Neither does the average potential advertiser, for that matter.
-Here's a quote from UFC play-by-play announcer Mike Goldberg, leaving his credibility at the door in a post-event segment on ESPNews: "Lesnar is undoubtedly the best heavyweight in the world!" He obviously wasn't going to go on ESPNews and say, "Lesnar is still not the best heavyweight in the world!" But he could have also retained a lot more credibility if he had chosen different wording.
-I didn't catch it on the live broadcast, but all of the quotes from Dan Henderson’s post-fight interview include Henderson openly saying that he knew Michael Bisping was unconscious and he hit him one more time anyway. That is just classless garbage. At least he didn't throw two more punches at his unconscious opponent's head after the ref was literally pulling him off (like Quinton Jackson did against Wanderlei Silva), but it's still classless garbage.
-That was a masterful performance by Georges St. Pierre, but why was cornerman Greg Jackson talking to GSP like he was five years old in between rounds? I'm not even exaggerating; that is literally how Little League coaches talk to five-year-olds.
-Were the judges distracted by a piece of flying lint during the Yoshihiro Akiyama-Alan Belcher fight? I had it scored 30-27 for Belcher, although I could understand scoring it 29-28 for Belcher. But one judge had it 30-27 for Akiyama? As Jake Rossen said on his ESPN/Sherdog blog, "Do they test the judges for recreational drugs?"
-The fact that Mark Coleman is still fighting at his age and in his condition is sad. The fact that Stephan Bonnar lost to him is almost as sad.
-According to USA Today, during a recent Q&A session with fans, UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta recently "called out EA Sports for passing up a deal with the UFC on a video game and then coming around after the success of UFC 2009 Undisputed to do another MMA game."
That is some nice revisionist history (from someone whose company has been engaging in plenty of revisionist history recently). The launch (and sales success) of UFC 2009: Undisputed came in May 2009. EA Sports has been working on an MMA video game since 2008, and multiple media outlets wrote about it in 2008, including MMA Payout and the Wrestling Observer.
Were the writers at MMA Payout and the Wrestling Observer blessed with psychic powers that enabled them to write about EA’s MMA game and some of the specific fighters that signed to appear in it (Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock, etc.) one year before EA even started working on the game?
No, they weren't. In fact, IGN also wrote about EA's MMA game in May 2008, a full year before UFC 2009: Undisputed was released.
The UFC's management was fully aware of the existence of EA's MMA game in 2008, as that was one of the major reasons that the UFC threatened its roster of fighters into signing away their lifetime exclusive video game rights for free (ie, to ensure that they couldn't appear in EA's game).
As Steve Barry wrote on MMA Convert, "It's just another example of Zuffa bending the truth to spin an ugly situation in their favor. And quite frankly, it's starting to get old, especially when the majority of people listening don't know any better."
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 5:02 AM
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No Out-of-Competition Drug Testing for UFC 100 Fighters
by Ivan Trembow
None of the fighters on the UFC 100 card were subjected to the Nevada State Athletic Commission's out-of-competition drug testing program, as confirmed by NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer on Sunday morning.
Out-of-competition drug tests differ from the NSAC's usual drug tests in the sense that with the out-of-competition testing, fighters do not know when they are going to be tested ahead of time.
Drug testing on the day of the weigh-in or the day of the fight is, of course, going to fail to detect a significant percentage of dopers because they will have had weeks to use advanced methods of flushing performance-enhancing drugs out of their bodies.
None of the "Big Four" major sports in the United States have a drug-testing program in which the athletes know ahead of time exactly when they may be tested.
Even in the out-of-competition drug tests, fighters are given 48 hours to take their drug tests, whereas other sports require their athletes to take their drug tests immediately upon notification that a test has been ordered.
As The Ring Magazine's Mark Zeigler wrote earlier this year about the NSAC's out-of-competition testing, "Here's how it works: The commission contacts a licensed fighter, notifies him he has been selected for an out-of-competition test and provides instructions about locating the nearest accredited laboratory. The lab is also contacted, and the fighter has two days to show up, present photo identification and submit a urine test. Here's the problem: Two days is ample time for someone to flush their system of many banned substances."
Even when no other out-of-competition drug testing is performed, the NSAC usually orders out-of-competition tests to be performed on fighters who have previously failed drug tests in the state of Nevada.
In the case of UFC 100, that was not done. Stephan Bonnar was not ordered to take an out-of-competition drug test, despite the fact that Bonnar previously tested positive for Boldenone after a fight against Forrest Griffin in 2006. Boldenone is an anabolic steroid used by veterinarians to rehabilitate injured horses.
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 4:06 AM
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Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Mixed Martial Arts--- As the MMA world reflects on Lyoto Machida's dominant KO win over the previously undefeated Rashad Evans, the fact that Machida didn't get a title shot sooner has been made all the more amazing by his performance against Evans.
Earlier this year, with a UFC record of 6-0 and an MMA record of 14-0, Machida was still passed over for a title shot in favor of Quinton Jackson (even with Jackson’s legal issues), who had won an incredible two fights in a row.
Even when Jackson’s injuries made it clear that he couldn’t fight on the May 23rd card, Machida still wasn’t going to get the next title shot.
It was only because both Jackson and Frank Mir were injured (thus preventing the UFC from delaying Evans’ first title defense until July) that Machida got a title shot before Jackson.
Even then, published reports at the time said that it still would not have happened if Zuffa had been able to convince Georges St. Pierre to move up his title defense against Thiago Alves to May 23.
The only reason they finally gave Machida the title shot when they did, rather than having him fight yet again before getting a title shot and likely against another tough opponent like Thiago Silva, was because all three of these things happened:
1. Quinton Jackson was hurt and couldn't fight on May 23
2. Frank Mir was hurt and couldn't fight on May 23
3. GSP was not willing to move his fight up to May 23
If any two of those things had happened, we’d be looking forward to Evans vs. Jackson in July, and Machida would have yet another tough fight before getting a title shot.
It’s only because all three of those things happened that Evans vs. Machida happened on May 23.
It’s kind of crazy to think that such an historic night would not have even happened if not for all of those things happening at the same time.
Other MMA Thoughts: I’m not surprised by Mirko Cro Cop’s return to the UFC, but I am surprised that he’s fighting in June. Cro Cop is fighting just five months after reconstructive knee surgery? And he’s having a training camp three to four months after reconstructive knee surgery? That doesn't sound like a great idea.
Andrei Arlovski vs. Brett Rogers being added to the June 6th Strikeforce event is fantastic news. Having said that, the idea that Phil Baroni vs. Joe Riggs is going to be a main card bout, while Rafael Feijao vs. Jared Hamman is going to be an untelevised prelim bout, is beyond pathetic.
Recent Boxing Events: Jermain Taylor vs. Carl Froch was a very good fight with an incredible 12th round. I had Froch down by a large margin going into the 12th round, as did two of the judges. The one judge who had it 8 rounds to 3 in favor of Froch going into the 12th round is right up there with the two judges who had Michael Bisping beating Matt Hamill in the “incompetent at best” category.
Play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson added so much to the incredible 12th round of Froch vs. Taylor. I was initially against it when Showtime replaced Steve Albert with Gus Johnson, but after that 12th round, I’m not so sure anymore. Albert is more of a traditional boxing play-by-play man, whereas Johnson is more of a “telling the story of any given fight” announcer, much like Jim Lampley, only not constantly missing it when big punches land or saying that something landed when it didn’t like Lampley does. Johnson can add a lot of drama and excitement to a big fight finish, as play-by-play announcers are supposed to do, without saying the same thing every time like Mike Goldberg does (”and it is all over!”).
Andre Ward's recent win over Edison Miranda was a star-making performance for Ward. Miranda is a legit top-level fighter, and dominating him like that is a big accomplishment.
Play-by-play announcer Nick Charles may have been too hard on Miranda during the fight, but I usually enjoy the commentary of Nick Charles and Steve Farhood just about as much as I enjoy any announcing team in boxing or MMA. They tend to be very straightforward and honest with their assessments of up-and-coming fighters, and that’s a particularly big deal on a show like “ShoBox” with all of the up-and-coming prospects that appear on it.
Labels: Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 2:52 AM
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009
ESPN Segment on Dana White Prompts Questions about Long-Term Growth Potential of UFC
Editorial by Ivan Trembow
One could get a sense of how much homework the producers of the ESPN show "E:60" had actually done fairly early in the segment about UFC president Dana White when correspondent Tom Farrey said that "the MMA" has exploded in popularity (as opposed to, "MMA has exploded in popularity").
The show's credibility didn't improve very much from there, as there was no questioning of White's claim, "I built this business without help from anybody."
Additionally, the segment did not even mention the Dana White/AKA debacle of late 2008, where it was not a journalist, but multiple UFC fighters who were on the receiving end of a bullying tirade that would have gotten the public face of any legitimately mainstream sport fired in under a day. White made those statements about Jon Fitch and other AKA fighters in an impromptu interview with Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole.
The segment also failed to mention an important point that is closely related to the AKA explosion, which is the fact that the managers of UFC fighters, and even some of the fighters themselves, are actually terrified of White because of the publicly demonstrated consequences for any manager or fighter who criticizes White in public or doesn't sign something (ie, anything) that he wants them to sign. (Part 1 of my coverage of the AKA mess; Part 2 of my coverage of the AKA mess).
During the E:60 segment, Farrey also reacted with a shocked facial expression to White's oft-repeated claim that the UFC will be the biggest sport in the world ten years from now. If Farrey had done more research, he wouldn't have been so shocked to hear that from White because he would have known that White has been saying that on a regular basis since 2007.
There was also the fact that The Zuffa Myth about Dana White changing the sport's rules was repeated and not refuted. Farrey also repeated The Zuffa Myth once again during an interview with the Orlando Sentinel.
Even more than The Zuffa Myth, this segment (and the promotion of it) put forward what one might call, "The Dana White Myth." The commercials on ESPN that hyped this particular episode of E:60 said, "Meet the brain behind the fastest-growing sport in the world!"
If The Zuffa Myth is that Zuffa created the rules of MMA, then The Dana White Myth is that White is some kind of super-genius and that nobody else could run the UFC without him, ignoring the fact that Lorenzo Fertitta already makes most of the big business decisions, and ignoring the fact that Joe Silva already does the matchmaking.
Not surprisingly, White remained completely unremorseful for his tirade against Loretta Hunt during the E:60 segment. I say "not surprisingly" because I don't know how that could be surprising to anyone at this point. Pressure from an organization with as much influence as GLAAD meant that White essentially had no choice but to apologize for his use of an anti-gay slur, regardless of whether or not he would have otherwise done so.
White was not forced to apologize for anything else that he said, and he's never going to do so. From White's perspective, why should he? If nothing else, White's tirade against Hunt (and the lack of consequences for that tirade other than those that were self-imposed) clearly served to demonstrate that White can say literally anything he wants, because Fertitta is never going to assert any consequences for White's behavior.
After all, as Iole said in an interview shortly after publishing White's tirade against AKA, it was Lorenzo Fertitta who could be heard in the background during that tirade, acting "just as impassioned" as White and strongly backing what White was saying.
Near the end of the E:60 segment, Farrey asked the only question of the segment that could be classified as anything even close to a "tough question," as he essentially asked White if the UFC could ever be truly mainstream with someone like White as its president. White's response was, "Maybe not." Somehow, there was no follow-up question along the lines of, "Wait a minute... but you said earlier that the UFC is going to be the biggest sport in the world in ten years."
It continues to amaze me that media outlets like E:60 continue to fail to pick up on the obvious contradictions of Dana White and the long-term growth potential of the UFC.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the fact that "This is going to be the biggest sport in the world in ten years" is a statement that is incongruous with the obscene tirade that White publicly directed towards Loretta Hunt.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that "This is going to be the biggest sport in the world in ten years" is a statement that is incongruous with the obscene tirade that White publicly directed towards AKA's fighters.
The fact of the matter is that the UFC is never going to be "the biggest sport in the world" or even a truly "mainstream" entity as long as it has a president that behaves like a vulgar, dogmatic bully.
Maybe it will take two more obscene public tirades for more people to come to that realization, maybe it will take four more obscene public tirades, or maybe some people will never come to that realization, particularly if they remain ignorant of just how much of a role Lorenzo Fertitta and Joe Silva already have in running the UFC.
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:06 AM
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Sunday, April 19, 2009
Mixed Martial Arts--- UFC 97 Thoughts
by Ivan Trembow
-The people who are criticizing Anderson Silva by saying things like "he doesn't care" or "he's not interested in fighting" are way off-base. Silva is a counter-striker. Some counter-strikers are better than others at adjusting their style and their gameplan when their opponent calls their proverbial bluff and forces them to be the one to come forward and be the aggressor. Thales Leites’ gameplan against Silva wasn’t all that different from Patrick Cote’s gameplan against Silva, or from Rashad Evans’ gameplan against Chuck Liddell.
-As Sports Illustrated wrote last night, "The champion [Anderson Silva] enters the cage after a coat of Vaseline is slathered on his face. I’m sorry to say this, but it was pretty obvious that Silva took his hands, wiped down his face and rubbed his chest and arms."
The accuracy of the previous sentence is made clear as day by this video: http://mmafrenzy.com/files/2009/04/anderson-silva-ufc-97-greasing.gif
The video starts just after Silva enters the Octagon with Vaseline on his face, just prior to the beginning of his fight. I have no way of knowing whether it was intentional, but whether or not it happened is not something that's up for debate.
-If that was indeed Chuck Liddell’s last MMA fight, he had an incredible career and provided MMA fans with a lot of great memories. The UFC is doing the right thing by pressuring Liddell to retire before he suffers permanent injury.
-On a related note, It’s amazing to me that there hasn’t been more talk of Wanderlei Silva retiring, just as there has (rightfully) been for Liddell.
While Liddell has been TKO’ed three times in recent years, only one of those was a knocked-out-cold KO. Wanderlei Silva has, in his last five fights, gotten brutally knocked out cold by Mirko Cro Cop, gotten brutally knocked out cold by Dan Henderson, taken a horrible beating in a unanimous decision loss to Chuck Liddell, beaten Keith Jardine, and gotten brutally knocked out cold by Quinton "Delirium Absolves me of Any Responsibility" Jackson.
If there was a list of fighters who should retire (for their own sake) as a result of taking too much punishment over the years and suffering too many bad knockouts, Wanderlei Silva would be far higher on that list than Chuck Liddell.
-More of UFC president Dana White’s credibility went flying out of his mouth and into the night at the UFC 97 post-fight press conference.
White said, "Fedor [Emelianenko] is not the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. These guys [referring to Anderson Silva] continue to fight the best. Fedor is at a buffet somewhere in Russia."
Let me get this straight. Fedor’s last two fights were stoppage wins over the #4-ranked heavyweight in the world and the #3-ranked heavyweight in the world.
Anderson Silva’s last three fights were against nowhere-near-ranked James Irvin, nowhere-near-ranked Patrick Cote, and not-quite-top-ten-ranked Thales Leites... and yet it’s Fedor who is not fighting the best in the world?
That's not even the most credibility-shattering quote. Dana White also said this: “So until this guy [Fedor] decides to get in shape, take it serious, and consistently fight the best in the world, for you guys to even think about calling him the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world is insane.”
Someone break out the clown make-up and honking red nose.
-The Montreal commission wouldn’t comment in the months leading up to this event, but we got our answer in the main event about whether the UFC agreed to use something other than the Unified Rules of MMA for this event. Silva did a foot-stomp, and the referee clearly said, “No foot stomps, no foot stomps.” Other MMA promotions do this with elbow strikes, but this is the first time I can recall the Zuffa-era UFC using anything other than the Unified Rules of MMA.
-Cheick Kongo may not be too far away from a UFC Heavyweight Title match, but I believe that is going to be a squash match for anyone with good takedowns. I’m sure Kongo is better now than he was when Carmelo Marrero dominated him with takedowns, but I don’t think he’s so much better that he wouldn’t be taken down and pounded and/or submitted by any number of heavyweights in the UFC. The UFC is not stupid. They know this, and that’s why Kongo’s last three fights (after the loss to Heath Herring) have come against Dan Evensen, Mustapha al Turk, and Antoni Hardonk, three fighters who were overmatched against Kongo and also had limited ground games.
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 5:33 PM
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Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Mixed Martial Arts--- Detailed Summary of St. Pierre vs. Penn Vaseline Incidents, Including Possible Influence on Round 2
by Ivan Trembow
Much more information has come out in the past couple of days about the incidents in which vaseline was allegedly rubbed on Georges St. Pierre's back by one of his cornermen in between the rounds of his fight against BJ Penn at UFC 94 on Saturday night. Rubbing vaseline anywhere other than on a fighter's face would be illegal.
There has been a lot of noise on all sides of this issue, including from many fans (and even a few journalists) who are taking the “bury your head in the sand” mentality of just wanting this story to go away, regardless of whether or not any wrongdoing was committed.
The statements from Penn's side about what happened are naturally going to be slanted in one direction, and the statements from St. Pierre's side about what happened are naturally going to be slanted in the other direction.
This makes the quotes from Keith Kizer, the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, especially relevant because he's not on the Penn side or the St. Pierre side.
So, based on video evidence and numerous statements made by Kizer, here are the actual facts as we know them.
First of all, the video of the cornerman, Phil Nurse, rubbing St. Pierre's face with vaseline and then immediately thereafter rubbing St. Pierre's back is now on YouTube at this URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKuJSQJOiwM. This occurred between Rounds 1 and 2.
There is also confirmation in numerous interviews with Kizer that this was not the only time during the fight that vaseline appeared to be have been rubbed on St. Pierre's back by his cornerman. Kizer has said in multiple interviews that he saw it happen with his own eyes between Rounds 2 and 3, at which point he entered the cage and started yelling at St. Pierre's cornermen.
Here are quotes from MMAWeekly and Sherdog articles about the two separate vaseline incidents.
From MMAWeekly:
"After round two, I watched him like a hawk," said Kizer. "I've only entered the ring maybe three or four times (in my career) during a fight, but I did this time.
Watching the pay-per-view, Nurse is clearly seen on camera applying Vaseline to the face of St. Pierre following round one. It is difficult to tell the amount of residual Vaseline on his hands, but he does clearly rub St. Pierre's shoulders and then reach around to touch his upper back. The extent to which such actions affected the actual in-ring action are unclear, but what is clear is that such action was a violation Nevada's regulations.
"They didn't take a big glob and throw it on his back. After putting Vaseline on (St. Pierre's) face, he put his hands on his body. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it was improper," Kizer continued, who confirmed that an inspector did use a towel to wipe St. Pierre's back between rounds two and three, and three and four."
From Sherdog:
[Kizer said] “After the second round, we observed Mr. Jackson putting Vaseline on Mr. St. Pierre’s face and then putting his hand on his back.”
...
“I told them I was disappointed and that they may have tainted Mr. St. Pierre’s victory…Whether it was intentional or not, I don’t know. It was improper.”
An important detail that has come out in multiple interviews with Kizer is that while the first application of vaseline to St. Pierre's back appeared to happen between Rounds 1 and 2, it wasn't until after the second round that the NSAC intervened.
This would mean that if vaseline was applied to St. Pierre's back after Round 1, it would have still been on his back throughout Round 2.
There is confirmation of this important detail from Kizer in various interviews, but perhaps most clearly in this one from MMA Junkie in terms of the timeline of events:
[Kizer said] "The first round, one of the inspectors that was on the outside of the cage came over to me and said it looked to him that when the cornerman, who I think in that case was Phil Nurse, put the Vaseline on Georges’ face then rubbed his shoulders — which you see the guys rubbing the other guy’s shoulders to help him out — he didn’t wipe off his hands between doing that. I said, ‘Well, I’m going to watch very closely after this round.’”
Kizer watched intently to see if the questionable actions would be repeated as the second round came to a close.
“At the end of the second round I watched, and then another cornerman who I believe was Greg Jackson, he put the Vaseline on Georges’ face, and then he put his hand on his back to do the breathing thing they always do,” Kizer said. “As soon as I saw that, it looked like there was still some Vaseline on his hand. Not a lot, but still some.
“Tony Liano and I immediately yelled at him, and I don’t think he heard us because of the noise. So I actually went into the octagon, and I said, ‘Take your hand off of his back. What are you doing?’ We wiped it down. We made sure it was wiped down after the third round as well. This was after the second when I was in there. I was very upset. I don’t know if they were doing it intentionally or not. Either way, they shouldn’t have done it.
...
[Kizer said] "His cornerman should have been more careful if it was an accident. If it was intentional, that's even worse. Just very, very disturbing."
Now, with all of these facts and statements in mind, look at these five animated GIFs from the Underground Forum of five different times in Round 2 that Penn's legs slipped on St. Pierre's back while Penn was trying to utilize his rubber guard techniques from the bottom:
http://free-zg.t-com.hr/bhz/mma/penn_vs_gsp/slip1.gif
http://free-zg.t-com.hr/bhz/mma/penn_vs_gsp/slip2.gif
http://free-zg.t-com.hr/bhz/mma/penn_vs_gsp/slip3.gif
http://free-zg.t-com.hr/bhz/mma/penn_vs_gsp/slip4.gif
http://free-zg.t-com.hr/bhz/mma/penn_vs_gsp/slip5.gif
Again, Round 2 was after St. Pierre's cornerman rubbed his back immediately after applying vaseline to his face; and Round 2 was also before the athletic commission intervened to towel off St. Pierre's back, which did not happen until after Round 2.
Based on all the facts, quotes, and video evidence, it does look like it COULD have aided St. Pierre in Round 2. I don't think the outcome of the fight would have been any different, but as for whether it COULD have aided St. Pierre in Round 2, the video evidence is pretty overwhelming that it could have.
Although the outcome of the fight would have likely been the same even if St. Pierre did have an advantage in Round 2, that does not make this a non-story. It has been amazing to see some people saying, "It didn't affect the outcome of the fight, so it's a non-issue that we should all stop talking about!" That is such backwards logic.
They are two different situations, but the stand-up agreement in the fight between Seth Petruzelli and Kimbo Slice didn't affect the outcome of that fight because Petruzelli won by knockout anyway in 14 seconds. Were people saying after that fight, "It didn't affect the outcome of the fight, so it's a non-issue that we should all stop talking about"? Of course not, and if they were, that would have been an equally ridiculous argument.
As for where this goes from here, there is a possibility of fines and/or suspensions for any of St. Pierre's cornermen that the athletic commission deems to have broken the rules.
Perhaps just as significantly, St. Pierre's brilliant performance in the fight may be tainted in some fans' eyes. As Kizer said in his interview with MMA Junkie, "This may have tainted [St. Pierre's] victory in the eyes of many fans, and it's his cornerman's fault for that. It doesn't take away his victory, but it does take away from his victory in the eyes of many fans, I believe."
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 4:34 AM
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Sunday, February 01, 2009
Mixed Martial Arts--- UFC 94 Thoughts
by Ivan Trembow
As usual, Georges St. Pierre and Lyoto Machida looked like machines, in this case by dominating B.J. Penn and Thiago Silva, respectively. The best sporting event of the weekend was on Saturday, not on Super Bowl Sunday.
Machida Deserves Title Shot in Next Fight: Machida is long overdue for a title shot and he absolutely deserves to get the next shot at Rashad Evans' belt, not the winner of the upcoming fight between Quinton Jackson and Keith Jardine.
Update: Dana White said at the post-fight press conference that it will be Jackson who will be getting the next title shot, not Machida, provided that Jackson beats Jardine. He said that Machida will “probably” get a title shot by the end of 2009. At this point, the continual snubbing of Machida is just pathetic.
St. Pierre vs. Penn: In the GSP-Penn fight, Penn showed up to fight and looked to be in good shape, but GSP was simply too good.
For all the hype that went into this fight as two all-time greats with both of them at their absolute peak, Penn’s peak in terms of accomplishments was not beating Jens Pulver, Joe Stevenson, and Sean Sherk in the three-fight winning streak that he had going into this fight. Realistically, Penn's peak in terms of accomplishments was beating the #1 lightweight in the world and then beating the #1 welterweight in the world, and that was in late 2003 and early 2004, not in 2008 and 2009.
St. Pierre has Thiago Alves next on his plate, although if Jon Fitch could take down Alves at will like he did, then I’m guessing St. Pierre will also be able to take Alves down at will.
Vaseline Controversy in St. Pierre's Corner: According to this report on Cage Potato: "B.J. Penn's camp has filed a formal complaint with the Nevada State Athletic Commission over Vaseline that was allegedly rubbed on Georges St. Pierre's back between rounds one and two. UFC president Dana White said at the post-fight press conference that he was aware of the complaint, and said he personally witnessed members of the commission take the Vaseline away from GSP's camp and rebuke them in the Octagon between rounds."
White was also quoted as saying that the Nevada State Athletic Commission was "flipping out" about it and was "screaming" at St. Pierre's cornermen about it.
I am in shock about this. I would imagine that if this had been anything other than a huge fight, the fighter who got vaseline put on his back would have been disqualified on the spot, although I don't know that for sure.
I wish we could have seen what actually happened... how much vaseline was applied, who applied it, what the commission did, etc. The UFC has cameras in both corners in between every round, and it sounds like it would have been a big commotion, but the UFC apparently decided not to show the incident during the fight or after the fight, unless they did and I missed it.
Update: From looking at the tape, it was hard to see too much because the director kept cutting away every time vaseline would be on-screen or a towel would be on-screen. However, you can clearly see that one of GSP's trainers rubs his back between Rounds 1 and 2. You can't see in the shot whether the trainer has anything on this hands, but you can see that he is using the same hand that was just applying vaseline to GSP's face seconds earlier, and that is on the tape clear as day.
The athletic commission "flipping out" can be seen on the tape between Rounds 2 and 3. You can see as the round was about to start that one of the NSAC inspectors was thrown a towel and gave St. Pierre's back a very brief rub-down in the seconds right before Round 3 started. Then, between Rounds 3 and 4, it looks like St. Pierre's back got a much more thorough rub-down with towels. Again, it's hard to determine more from this because the director kept cutting away from it.
Zach Arnold also wrote about this on Fight Opinion: "If the NSAC agrees that indeed rules were violated, it will immediately taint St. Pierre’s dominant win over Penn. I realize and you realize that St. Pierre put on a dominant performance, but Penn’s camp has a perfectly legitimate gripe here if the accusations of vaseline usage (in this manner) are true. While Dana White tried to soften the blow of the allegations about possible illegal vaseline usage on St. Pierre, the fact that White is trying to deflect all the heat for the incident on a cornerman and not on St. Pierre is unacceptable."
Fights Going the Distance is Not Necessarily Bad: A lot of people online are complaining about UFC 94 because of the high number of fights that went the distance of three rounds. I don’t think that most fights going to a decision automatically makes an event worse than if most fights end quickly. Even with the one-sided main event, I thought this event was better than the recent UFC event with a bunch of quick finishes that most people said was a great event because of all the quick finishes (UFC 91).
Another Curious Decision for Fight of the Night: Seriously, Clay Guida vs. Nate Diaz gets a Fight of the Night award? And last month, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua vs. Mark Coleman did? And the month before that, Junie Browning vs. David Kaplan did? There were more deserving fights on all three of those events.
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 4:09 AM
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Saturday, January 31, 2009
Mixed Martial Arts--- No Out-of-Competition Drug Testing for UFC 94 Fighters
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly
The Nevada State Athletic Commission did not test any fighters on the UFC 94 card as part of its out-of-competition drug testing program.
In addition, there were no fighters subjected to the out-of-competition drug testing program who competed on the WEC event on December 3; or on the UFC events on December 13 or December 27. All four events took place in Nevada and fall under the NSAC's jurisdiction.
When asked on January 15 if any fighters on the January 31 card had been tested as part of the NSAC's out-of-competition drug testing program, NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer replied, "Not yet."
When asked earlier this week, on January 28, if any fighters on the January 31 card had been tested as part of the NSAC's out-of-competition drug testing program, Kizer replied, "No."
The out-of-competition drug testing program allows the NSAC to order random drug tests at any time on any fighter that the NSAC licenses as a mixed martial artist, boxer, or kickboxer.
Like many other major sports, this out-of-competition drug testing is in addition to day-of-competition drug testing. The day-of-competition drug testing was still conducted at all of the aforementioned events and will be conducted at UFC 94 as well.
However, when athletes know the exact date of an upcoming drug test ahead of time, the testing is not going to catch very many users. There are numerous ways to mask banned substances if you have days, weeks, or in this case months of notice before a drug test.
Therefore, the out-of-competition drug testing program is a vital step towards detecting the use of banned substances during training camps.
A total of fourteen fighters (some boxers, some mixed martial artists) whose fights were scheduled between February 1, 2008 and October 31, 2008 were tested as part of the out-of-competition drug testing program, which was announced in January 2008.
In the weeks prior to UFC 91 in November, ten fighters were tested as part of the program, and all of them passed their tests.
Between November 15 and the end of January, there were four major MMA events scheduled in the state of Nevada: a WEC event on December 3, a UFC event on December 13, another UFC event on December 27, and another UFC event that will take place on January 31.
None of the fighters on these shows were tested as part of the out-of-competition drug testing program.
In other news related to the NSAC's out-of-competition drug testing program, The Ring Magazine Online recently reported that instead of having several hours to submit to a drug test from the time that they are notified that they need to take a drug test, fighters actually have two days to take an NSAC-ordered drug test.
The Ring's Mark Zeigler wrote, "Here's how it works: The commission contacts a licensed fighter, notifies him he has been selected for an out-of-competition test and provides instructions about locating the nearest accredited laboratory. The lab is also contacted, and the fighter has two days to show up, present photo identification and submit a urine test. Here's the problem: Two days is ample time for someone to flush their system of many banned substances."
The NSAC's Keith Kizer confirmed that fighters do have two days to take an out-of-competition drug test from the time that they are notified, but added that this is subject to change.
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:41 AM
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Friday, January 30, 2009
Mixed Martial Arts--- Zuffa Breaks News of Affliction MMA's Impending Demise Using Psuedonym
by Ivan Trembow
It appears as though Zuffa/UFC took it upon themselves to break the news of the impending demise of Affliction's MMA promotion, while hiding behind a psuedonym on Bloody Elbow.
Anyone who has read Bloody Elbow’s comments section long enough knows that the poster called “mmalogic” works for Zuffa and is not even particularly good at hiding it.
One example: In the comments section of a post from a few months back, “mmalogic” wrote this: “Zuffa adjusted their sponsorship model from creating OUR own sponsors” (capitalization added by me).
When another user pointed out what “mmalogic” just said and asked if he’s Joe Silva or someone else like that, “mmalogic” responded with this non-denial and followed it with flattery towards his accuser: “I won’t say who I am but I will say who you are judging by your past comments and analysis … You either own your own business, have owned your own business or very high up in a business either in Marketing or Sales… Did I call it?”
When the original accuser responded by saying that he just graduated with a degree in marketing and finance, “mmalogic” responded with more flattery: “You got the head for it… try to hook up with a good consulting firm – you will do well.”
In this case, it’s easy to see how high-level executives at Zuffa would know so much about Affliction MMA’s pending demise, particularly if Affliction has contacted Zuffa to work out a peace deal.
So, what do they do? They make a post about it under their “mmalogic” psuedonym to give themselves more leverage in the negotiations for the aforementioned peace deal (Affliction has even less leverage in negotiations if everyone is already reading about how little leverage they have and how their MMA branch is about to go out of business anyway).
A lot of people think that the UFC doesn’t care about blogs, but they must realize what kind of influence a very popular blog like Bloody Elbow has, based on the fact that they (Zuffa) are willing to take the time and effort to try to spread information and influence opinions by making posts under psuedonyms like “mmalogic.”
-More on "mmalogic": Even putting aside how blatant it is in his comments, look at the previous FanPost blog entries by “mmalogic”:
Shinya Aoki is not a top five fighter (in January 2009); EliteXC ratings are below CBS’ expectations and now ProElite people are looking for work; HBO is unhappy with the Affliction/Golden Boy partnership; Randy Couture to Headline UFC 91 (before it was widely reported); and a post about why Zuffa has no reason to co-promote with anyone.
Like I said, not very subtle. I’m guessing Zuffa will try to be more subtle when posting under psuedonyms in the future.
-FightOpinion and Bloody Elbow Posts About This: Zach Arnold wrote about this on FightOpinion.com
"What makes this interesting is that by leaking claims that Affliction wants to wave the white flag in terms of no longer competing with Zuffa that it all but eliminates any sort of leverage Atencio might or might not have if he is in fact doing this.
It’s no secret that Zuffa employees read message boards, blogs, etc. What is interesting is whether or not more and more UFC employees will start using blogs to manipulate the message they want the public to hear. The organization already has friendly broadsheet media outlets that aren’t willing to push back against them, and then you add on the generally UFC-safe Yahoo Sports coverage team, and what you end up with is a pretty sophisticated strategy to influence both hardcore and casual MMA fans."
In response, Bloody Elbow editor Luke Thomas wrote an angry response on BloodyElbow.com.
Personally, I think Luke is misinterpreting the point of Zach’s post. I don’t think that Zach or anyone else (including me) is saying that Bloody Elbow’s “coverage is nothing more than a mouthpiece or distribution channel for Zuffa.” It’s not that Bloody Elbow is guilty of anything, it’s that this one specific poster “mmalogic” certainly appears to be a Zuffa employee from looking at the evidence.
As for Bloody Elbow not having any dialogue with the UFC, this is informal communication, but literally one post down from Luke’s, Michael Rome wrote this as an update to the original post by Zuffa employee mmalogic: “I have been digging at this story for the last 3 or 4 hours since I first heard it. I believe it to be true. A source at UFC informed that Lorenzo Fertitta was contacted today by Affliction looking for a ‘beneficial’ way out.” There’s nothing wrong with having communications with the UFC.
Also, it doesn’t take “some grand Zuffa scheme” for this to happen. “Astroturfing” is something that corporations have been caught doing in the past, it’s probably not that hard for them to do it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Zuffa had other screen names on other sites doing the same thing.
-Affliction Head Denies his MMA Promotion's Demise: Affliction head Tom Atencio has already denied that his MMA promotion is on the verge of going out of business, but of course he’s going to say that.
Realistically, even before any of this came out today, I think the vast majority of hardcore MMA fans have thought for weeks that Affliction’s MMA division would be kaput shortly after their second show (if not before their second show).
It’s likely that it’s over except for the negotiations of how, and under what financial terms, Affliction will stop promoting MMA shows and will re-enter the fray as one of the biggest sponsors of UFC fighters. Zuffa has a lot more leverage than Affliction already, and they attempted to tip the scales of leverage in their direction even further with that post made under one of their psuedonyms — “mmalogic” (and I only use the plural form “psuedonyms” because it would be naive to think that if they’re using one psuedonym that it’s the only one that they have on any web site).
Now, Atencio is trying to tip the scales of leverage back in his direction by denying that they’re getting out of the MMA promotion business.
In that respect, it’s no different than what Zuffa is doing. What is a big difference is the fact that Atencio is using his real name in those interviews, while Zuffa made their post under a psuedonym.
-What's Wrong with the UFC Leaking Information Under Psuedonyms: To anyone who may take the position that a person still has a right to post even if they’re a UFC employee, it’s not being a UFC employee that is objectionable; it’s the lack of disclosure. It’s the fact that there is information coming from the UFC, information whose release benefits the UFC, but without the public knowing that it came from the UFC and being able to judge its veracity (or the motives for its release) in that context. That is what is objectionable about "mmalogic." Now that "mmalogic" has been exposed, Zuffa will likely use other screen names instead (ones that haven’t been exposed).
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 2:09 AM
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Thursday, January 22, 2009
Mixed Martial Arts--- Random Thoughts on a Variety of Topics
by Ivan Trembow
-UFC Primetime Eschews Artificial Controversy and Focuses on the Fighters: Kudos to the UFC for not making Episode 2 of UFC Primetime about artificially created storylines. The ignorance of the argument put forth by many that you need artificial controversy to sell a big fight is exposed by the extremely high quality of all but five minutes of the first two episodes of Primetime (I’m referring to the artificial controversey in the last five minutes of Episode 1).
The preview special before the first Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver fight last year is another great example. This is exactly what a “building up a big fight” preview show should be.
-Huerta Taking Time Away from Fighting: Lightweight fighter Roger Huerta recently announced that he will be taking time away from MMA to focus on his acting career, and predictably he has been getting ripped to shreds for it on MMA message boards.
As you may recall, Huerta had the nerve to question the UFC's pay scale in an interview with Fight Magazine last year, and in doing so, he apparently committed the worst sin of all. Fighters have been arrested for all kinds of things, and they’ve tested positive for steroids and just about every other banned substance known to man. But I don’t think any one of those incidents has generated as much universal scorn as Huerta did for the unforgivable sin of questioning the UFC’s pay scale.
After that interview was printed, and after the retaliatory leak came out from Zuffa claiming that Huerta supposedly wanted low six figures and a PPV bonus and that even BJ Penn doesn’t get that, the response from much of the online MMA community was the anticipated response of, “OMG, Huerta is so greedy!” I didn’t see anyone respond with, “Wait a minute... BJ Penn doesn’t make low six figures with a PPV bonus?"
-Health of Gary Goodridge and Other MMA Fighters: Before the California State Athletic Commission shamefully decided to clear Gilbert Yvel to fight in California, there were rumors swirling that Affliction was going to sign Gary Goodridge to be Yvel's replacement and fight Barnett. Goodridge has been fighting in professional MMA since 1996, he is 42 years old, he has lost his four most recent MMA fights, and he has an even longer losing streak in professional kickboxing bouts.
If the rumors are true that Affliction was going to book Barnett vs. Goodridge if Yvel wasn't cleared, then Affliction should be ashamed of themselves. That fight would have been a brutal, one-sided beating.
Even if he's not fighting against Josh Barnett, Goodridge has enough knockout losses between MMA and kickboxing that an athletic commission might need to step in and save him from himself at some point.
The same is true for Kazushi Sakuraba, Hidehiko Yoshida, Ken Shamrock, Don Frye, Wanderlei Silva (getting brutally knocked out cold on three separate occasions is no joke), Murilo "Ninja" Rua (getting brutally knocked out cold on four separate occasions is no joke), and numerous other MMA fighters. Unfortunately, the Japan-based fighters have no athletic commission to look out for their safety above all else, and we’ve yet to see if any U.S. athletic commissions are willing to take an unpopular stand when it finally becomes time for someone to take that stand.
Even if an athletic commission does take a stand like New York did with Evander Holyfield several years ago, the fighters are still likely to try to continue fighting elsewhere, but at least it limits their options and makes it less of an attractive option for those fighters to continue suffering more and more brain damage as the years go on.
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:08 AM
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Mixed Martial Arts--- Random Thoughts on a Variety of Topics
by Ivan Trembow
-More Manufactured Storylines on UFC Primetime: Well, I guess we’ve got an answer to the question of whether the UFC feels that the UFC Primetime series can sell itself based on the personalities of BJ Penn and Georges St. Pierre, or whether UFC Primetime needs to have fake, manufactured storylines involving BJ Penn and Dana White in order to garner interest.
What an incredible coincidence that just today, on the day of Episode 2's premiere, word leaked out about Penn temporarily kicking out the cameras several days ago and having a feud with UFC president Dana White.
The UFC appears less interested in building up the St. Pierre vs. Penn fight based on the real-life drama of St. Pierre vs. Penn, and more interested in building up the St. Pierre vs. Penn fight based on a manufactured storyline involving Penn and White.
As noted by Nick Thomas of Bloody Elbow, Penn’s banishment of the cameras (for the cameras, ironically) was only temporary and was noted by Penn in an interview on Tapout Radio two days ago. It just magically leaked out today as being a major issue.
As Adam Swift wrote on MMA Payout, “Color me suspicious. Penn and Dana White are both crafty promoters and it’s definitely not out of the realm of possibility for the two to conspire to stir up some controversy to sell next weekend’s fight. Penn spent the weeks before his last fight with Sean Sherk talking up his genuine dislike for him and sold the fight as a true grudge match. Immediately following the fight Penn apologized and said that it was all pretend to hype the fight. White hasn’t been shy about interjecting himself into the company’s “storylines” (see Tito Ortiz) and has been known to borrow a page or two from the WWE promotional play book.”
-Josh Barnett Inserts Foot in Mouth: Josh Barnett continues to talk about his 2002 victory over Randy Couture as if it was a legitimate accomplishment. Barnett has plenty of other big wins, but he beat Couture in a fight in which he (Barnett) tested positive for steroids and Couture tested negative, so Barnett really ought to stop mentioning that win as an accomplishment. Every time he mentions that fight, all he’s doing is reminding people of his positive test result from 2002.
-Doping Attorney Still Incompetent: Doping attorney Howard Jacobs appears to be as incompetent as ever. In an interview with MMAWeekly regarding Antonio Silva's steroids case involving the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC), Jacobs said this: “[The CSAC] basically said, ‘Well, you can’t prove that it actually came from the legal supplement, as opposed to from the banned substance, so you lose because you didn’t prove it to us. We say we didn’t have to prove it. You had to prove it the other way around.”
In addition to the fact that you can’t just declare which party has to prove which facts and have that be the case just because you say so, there’s also the inconvenient little fact that even if they were to prove that it was 100% the fault of the supplement, the fighter is still responsible for what he puts in his body.
Jacobs has had the same B.S. argument every time a fighter has hired him in Nevada or California, and he almost always loses, and he’s always told by the commission that a fighter is responsible if banned substances are in his body whether they got there knowingly or unknowingly, and yet he comes back with the same argument the next time and loses again.
Keith Kizer of the NSAC did an interview with MMAWeekly in 2007 where he talked about a lot of the drug testing myths that fighters often try to exploit to make it seem that they’re not responsible for what they put into their system. Click here to read it.
-Quinton Jackson Gets a Slap on the Wrist for Endangering Numerous People's Lives: You gotta love our criminal justice system in America. Getting zero jail time for what Quinton Jackson did, especially as someone who is not a first-time offender, is just ridiculous, but that's what will end up happening unless he breaks the law again in the next 12 months.
Sadly, this is just one of many ridiculous things that happen every day in the court system. Murder, rape, and robbery get plea-bargained down every single day somewhere in this country. I guess endangering numerous people’s lives in a high-speed police chase while on at least his second religion-fueled hunger strike must be viewed as "nothing in comparison."
Before I get any e-mails about "the new, responsible, and more mature Quinton Jackson," I don’t think it reflects well on him to have punched a clearly unconscious fighter in the head three times, including two times after the referee was already pulling him off and trying to crook his arm to prevent him from throwing more punches (which is what Jackson did after he knocked out Wanderlei Silva in his first fight after the police chase). It’s kind of like talking about "the new, responsible, and more mature Chris Leben" after his positive steroids test.
Based on reading this quote from UFC president Dana White on the Carmichael Dave radio show (as first quoted on Five Ounces of Pain), you would think that Quinton Jackson's crime was that he came down with the flu and then cut in line at the supermarket:
“No, I don’t think there should be any problems with Rampage legally. Obviously he’s got to go to court because that thing happened. But he had delirium. He had something wrong with him. It wasn’t like he was on drugs or drinking alcohol or doing any of that stuff. He was doing the right thing and he got sick and like anyone who got sick and goes to court, I don’t think he’s going to have any issues.”
Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
posted by Ivan Trembow at 5:21 PM
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