Did Brock Lesnar’s actions legitimize pro wrestling or tarnish MMA?

Big, how much for you to get this tattoo?

So, last weekend at UFC 100, Brock Lesnar defeated Frank Mir to become the “undisputed” heavyweight champion of the UFC.  After the fight, he proceeded to flip off the crowd, demean Frank Mir, and give a “WWE-like” victory speech.

This seemed to cause an uproar because…well, I’m not too sure.

I’m not a huge MMA fan.  I’m more of a boxing guy, but I watch MMA on the periphery with the guys, and I know who’s who.  Here’s the thing…exactly what is so wrong about showing a little bit of personality?

Is Dana White that terrified of being lumped with Vince McMahon?  Does he think that if his guys show some personality that they’ll be seen as on par with pro wrestlers instead of as fighters? 

I’m pretty sure even the most hardcore of MMA fan isn’t the same kind of guy as the baseball purist here or Joe Buck complaining about Randy Moss’s touchdown celebrations.  The whole god damn sport is based on raw brutality and primal instinct. 

Guys talking trash, showing personality and creating rivalries is what drives interest.  Period.  If you ask me, the entire argument against Lesnar and his actions are wholly based in the fact that he was a former pro wrestler and MMA junkies are so terrified of being lumped with the WWE and its fan base.  

cleaning out the closet, MMA

All right, my goal today is to clear out the old "back log" of posts. They probably won't be long, but I've got a few that i wanted to post, but never finished. Up first, MMA

The UFC had a pretty big fight last weekend, and we have a new Baddest Man on the Planet.

UFC 98 was headlined by the Light Heavy Weight title fight between "Suga" Rashad Evans and Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida., and trust me, the UFC LtHeavy Strap means your the Baddest man on the Planet.

Evans is undefeated coming into 98 and won the strap from fan favorite Forrest Griffin over the winter, with a stunning knock out of the gritty Griffin.

Lyoto Machida, also undefeated, has been called the best fighter nobody likes, because of his "boring" fighting style. Machida is a reactionary fighter who will grind out a victory(think Lennox Lewis in boxing).

Well, the non exciting Machida dramatically knocked out Suga' in the second round, and is still undefeated, and still gets no respect.

In fact, the person that is next in line for a title shot, Quinten Rampage Jackson, has decided to be a host of the Ultimate Fighter, and fight the other host, Rashad Evans, the loser of last Saturday title fight.

So who fights Machida? Well Forrest Griffen and Anderson Silva are fighting at UFC 100, and even though Silva is a middle weight stepping up in class to 205, he is considered to be one of the pound for pound best fighters in the game. The winner of that fight in few months will prob get a title fight with the Dragon sometime next year.

GMV - Fedor's a Bad Man

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski was this last Saturday. It from the non UFC MMA called Affliction (yea, the ones that rock the douchebag shirts). I don't order Affliction PPV's, but I probably should, because Fedor is a bad ass.

Here is your GMV with a little bonus. The Video here is the "hype" video for the fight that was sat. The link at the bottom will take you to the fights abrupt end. Its worth the link. (yea, the hype video is long, GFY)



And The Link for the Fight Video, via Fanhouse.

Watch it. Very nice.

Your Monday Morning MMA

Yes, He's Canadian

So Saturday night was another big UFC PPV, and yes, it was another fantastic show that keeps MMA head and shoulders above boxing.

UFC 87 was billed as one of the deepest cards in recent history, as 3 fights were on the card that could be considered main event level matches, and all three went the distance.

The first of which was Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta, which saw KenFlow take it to the SI cover boy and win decidedly in by decision. I didn't get to really watch this fight as much as the others because of a the distance I was from the TV at the bar I watched it from.

As my party got smaller at the bar, me and bizzle decide to get closer for the other two fights, and found a table much better suited for watching the fights.

After a couple of fights from people i didn't know very well, both knockouts, both entertaining, the "double main event" was ready to get rolling.

As a fan of WWE, and well pro wrestling in general, I was skeptical when I heard former WWE champ Brock Lesner was going to become a MMA fighter, but I was intrigued. His first fight saw him come out of the gate swinging, and then punching on his opponent and pummeling him with his brick like fists, but one of his shots landed on the back of the head, and the ref stood the fighters up to dock Lesner a point, and then the savvy vet Frank Mir caught the big guy in a ankle lock.
While the end result may have been what most MMA experts thought would happen, Lesner getting submitted, even the most hardcore MMA guys thought Lesner looked good in his opening fight till he was docked that point.

That brought us to last Saturday, where Lesner got his second chance in the UFC, and needed to win to continue to be a big draw. And win he did. In the first 30 seconds or so his fight with Heath Herring, Lesner Landed a straight right square on Herring's cheeking, sending his flying backward about 20 feet. It was almost like a cartoon punch. Lesner swung, connected, and Herring was sent flying over backward. To Herring credit, he recovered quickly, and avoided a knockout, but Lesner continued to pound on the guy over and over, using his 15 pound weight advantage to smother Herring on the ground for the better part of the three rounds.

Lesner still has a long way to go, but he won this fight, and looked good doing it.

Then it was time for the real main event, George St. Perrie vs. Jon Fitch, for the welterweight championship strap. GSP is thought of as one of the best fighters in the world, of any weight class, and against of the hottest MMA stars today (Fitch had won 8 or 9 straight UFC fights) GSP proved all the experts right. From the opening bell, GSP dominated this fight. He knocked Fitch around early, and then took him to the ground for some classic GSP ground work. After the first round was over, Fitch was bloodied and GSP didn't even look tired.

Despite the lopsided decision, 50-43, 50-44, 50-44, for GSP, i will say this for John Fitch, the guy can take a punch. 4 or 5 times during that fight, GSP connected with fantastic shots that should have ended the fight, but every time Fitch would recover and continue.

Overall it was one of the better Cards that I've seen in awhile, but not the best. Look forward to Liddel/Evans next month.

your monday morning MMA

I don't know if this is going to become a staple around here, but I did catch the MMA fights this weekend, and wanted to share a bit with you.

It looks like we now have 3 promotions that are really trying to take over the MMA world. There is the big dog, the UFC, who has probably 95% of the best fighters in the sport. Big stars such as Anderson Silva, George St. Perrie, Chuck Lidell and BJ Penn are what make this promotion great. Every PPV is a much watch for the most part, and they put on free shows on Spike TV that really help keep them in the forefront of the sport. They aren't going anywhere.

Then you have the newest Affliction promotion, who is trying to go the same rout as UFC and is offering big named fighters, who are either fed up with the UFC, or not even signed by them, big contracts to fight for them. The biggest example is heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, who is regarded as by far the best heavyweight in MMA.

Then you have the little Elite XC. These guys are the only MMA that is on prime time network TV, they have a deal with CBS to show a card once every couple of months on Saturday evening, and they have some legit fighters, Robbie Lawler and Jake Sheilds, who are among the best in Elite, but would be middle of the pack guys in UFC. What separates Elite from the other is two things; First they have Kimbo Slice, the oft talked about former homeless guy/porno strongman, as their biggest draw, and while not a pure MMA guy, and he would probably get demolished by any good fighter, he is fun to watch and worth the price of admission. Second they have the best women fighters in MMA.

The first go around on CBS a few months ago featured all of these elements on the first CBS show for Elite. We were introduced to Kimbo Slice and watched him explode an ear, we saw a great stand up MMA fight between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith that ended in controversy, and we were introduced to the face of women MMA, Gina Carano, and were pleased.

Last Saturday was round 2 for the upstart Elite XC on CBS. This card introduced us to a few more of the promotions better fighters, and gave us the rematch of Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith.

The show started with what once was thought of as a gimmick, but now what might be the most legit thing XC has, the women's division. The last fight a smoking hot Gina Carano beat the shit of some chick, and it wasn't disgusting, like i thought it would be, and it wasn't "cat fight" esque like other thought it would be, but it was just a good fight, with two professional fighters, and it doesn't hurt at all that the hot one turned out to be the better fighter. So that brings us to this last sat, where 2 of the top women in MMA went at it, the winner to probably face Gina at the next show in October. The two fighters were Brazil's Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos and American Shayna Baszler. Here's a pic of Cyborg(and yes they called her cyborg the whole night)


Get more pictures like this from SHERDOG.COM

an imposing beast for sure.

Her opponent was no sloth either, Shayna Baszler was 12-0 going into the fight will all 12 wins coming from submission I think. It was even mentioned that she tapped someone out using the STF. A move i thought only worked in pro wrestling.

The Fight jumped off with Baszler shooting for Cyborgs legs, almost getting her in some sort of knee lock, that must have just made Cyborg angry, as she then started to beat the shit out of Baszler. At one point, Cyborg landed a clean hit that knocked Blaszler down, the fight should have been stopped as a KO, at least so thought Cyborg who started to celebrate and even jumped up on the cage top to cheer, the ref stood there like "uhh miss Cyborg, would you like to finish the match?" She finally understood and walked over to a glass eyed Baszler and pummeled her till the ref said stop.

A fun fight to watch, and sets up nice for the Sexy, everybody favorite Carano vs the freakish, Brazilian Cyborg. That's going to be fun.

The rest of the fight card was good, we got to see the best welterweight outside of the UFC, Jake Sheilds, choke out Nick Thompson, and then Nick Diaz show the world what it ment to be a patent fighter as he just played defense and conserved energy for a whole round against his opponent, Thomas Denny , only to explode on him in the second when he was tired.

The main event was a rematch from the last shows best fight, Robbie Lawler defending his 185lbs strap vs Scott Smith. The last fight was fun because it was mostly a stand up fight, with the guys exchanging blows on a regular basis. This one was no different, but you could see that Robbie Lawler, who may be the best true fighter in EliteXC, didn't want to leave any doubt he was the better man in this one.

Lawler was cut early and the blood seamed to fuel him to start a powerful barrage on Smith's mid section that stoped the fight after a few big knees and pops to the face.

The fight was good, not as good as the first one, but with Gus Johnson calling the fight, you thought it was Ali-Frazer. I don't believe there is anyone outside of pro wrestling who gets excited like Gus. There is lots of "IF the world collided into a thousand pieces and every piece spawned great fighters, you still wouldn't see a fight like this!!!!!" You gotta love him.

All in all a nice MMA night for EliteXC. They have a long way to go to catch up to the UFC, but they are trying. And they have now put up two very entertaining shows, and I'm looking forward to October when they will be on prime time again, and this time they will bring both Carano and Kimbo, so stay tuned.

Monday Morning MMA

So while you were out at the lake this weekend, sipping on some cold miller chills, in your new speed boat that's tied to a party barge, and trying ohh so hard not to get your perfectly spiked fohawk wet, there was some pretty good sports going down.

(why do I think all our readers are douchebags?)

I'm going to start with a little post about MMA. On a list of sports that I watch it falls somewhere behind Wrestling and Basketball, but just right in front of Baseball and Golf. That's why this is site is so great, Brown digs the slow, sports, I watch the good ones!

This weekend had 2 big MMA shows, one on PPV, and one was free.

Guess which one I watched?

(hint: PBR, while not as tasty as Miller Lite, you will often find me with a can of it at a bar)

The PPV was put on by a new MMA promoter, and suppler of douchebag appeal across the country, Affliction. Affliction is one of the many MMA joints trying to take a shot at UFC, the undisputed MMA champ right now. Every other promoter has a "gimmick" that they think will help them close the gap between them and the UFC, whether its giving young guys who fight really really hard TV time(WEC), or employing a body guard from a porn site (Elite XC and Kimbo), and this one is no different. Affliction tryed to take the best of both worlds form their fellow upstarts and signed a fighter who many believe to be the best Heavyweight in the world, Fedor Emelianenko.

Fedor is muay thai bad ass who doesn't just kick ass, he really does just beat bitches up. The rest of the card from what I've read was good, but the only reason to buy this fight was to see Fedor. He fought a former UFC Heavy hitter in Tim Silvia, and he did what Fedor does, he beat his ass.



I really don't know how good this guy is, but from what people that know mma, he's the shit. Problem is there isn't a heavyweight that's on his leval that he can fight, unless your name is Randy Coulter, and UFC won't release him(for good reason) and let him fight Fedor in Affliction.

The other fight this weekend was a free show put on the big boys over at UFC on Spike TV, and the headline fight was Anderson "The Spider" Silva vs. James "The N Hateing Dolphin" Irvin. Silva is regarded as the best pound for pound fighter in MMA right now, and he usually fights at 185, where he's the champ, but he bulked up to 205(light heavyweight), to take on Irvin. While I couldn't embed this video on this site, go over to MMA Linker to watch the fight. It only lasts about a min as Silva catches a kick from Irvin with one hand, and punches his face in with the other. Pretty effin bad ass. Go watch the fight, you wont be disappointed. I don't know where Silva will go next, he said in a interview after the fight that his first duty is to defend his middle weight belt at 185, but if the better fights are at 205, then this won't be the last time you see him as a light heavy. Side note, that would be effing awesome if he stayed at 205. I would pay mucho money to see Silva vs. Griffen, or Silva vs. Lidell.

The whole reason UFC put the fight on cable in stead of PPV was to try and bury Affliction's first PPV ever, by giving the fans just a big a star fighting on free tv instead of pay tv. Don't know if it worked, but I sure as shit watched the Spider over Fedor.

Good MMA Weekend.

The Champ is here

As my good friend Brown stated earlier in one of his posts, I had a pretty good weekend. And all in all, the weekend was pretty good for sports too. You have the Williams sisters in a Wimbledon Final, i think the men played too, the Rangers have 4 All Stars, and there was a UFC title fight on sat as well.

Now, we had a fantastic party this sat that lasted all damn night, that plus the fact that I was "that guy" at the party also ment we didn't get to watch the UFC fight. Totally was going too, but then i got a chance to do a little ground and pound of my own(ok, that's the last time I'll reference it). I've now read up, and watched clips, and all that good stuff, and I'm a little pissed I missed this fight.

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Forrest Griffin fought for the world light heavyweight strap and had an instant classic. It went all five rounds, and Griffin won via unanimous decision to become the new Light Heavyweight champ.

I was surprised, and a little mad, as I wanted Jackson to retain his title, and fight Machida next, then get the rematch with the Iceman late next year. Ohh well, i guess we can look forward to Griffin vs Liddell or one of these match ups in about 9 months.

With the light heavyweight division so stacked (as many as 6 guys can challenge for the title, and win it) i hope it doesn't lessen the excitement about UFC.

(btw, I'm still the wing man dejour)

Sports Flash

We are going to scatter shoot a little this morning.

-Of all the anti spurs stuff, I think these guys got it best. There is no real reason for the hatred, yet i still do.

- Speaking of basketball, I couldn't have said it better, Paul Peirce is the key to the finials.

- TO, the rich get richer. But do you really want to give an older WR 4 years?

-Now your lying fake crying, Greg Ellis is still a bitch in my book

-Man, now I have to get creative when I make fun of my buddy for like liking the broncos, Travis Henry got cut. There goes the easy "pot smoking" jokes, as well as the "super sperm gives him an extra step" jokes as well. Thanks.

Lastly here is a video that suggests that the Kimbo slice fight was fixed.


But please read this guys take as to why it wasn't

MMA was this close

Over the weekend, quite a big of sports happened. The NBA finials are going to be LA v Boston, the Rangers got over .500 and then dropped back down to it, and the WWE had one of my favorite PPV's of the year. All those great things were put on the back burner for me because Mixed Martial Arts was taking a giant step, and premiering on network TV for the first time, on CBS, Saturday night.

This wasn't a 2AM special, or a noon start on a Thursday; this was 8:00 pm, sat night, live from Jersey.

I've been a strong to quite strong MMA fan since the days of Hoyce Gracie and Tank Abbot, and have been following it since. I'm not a die hard like some of my friends, but over the past 5 years I've seen the sport go from a side show like mentality to a legit sporting contest, with the rise of the UFC. Stars like Ken Shamrock, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Lidell, and George Saint-Perrier have brought the sport a long from its "freak show" start.

The next step in the evolution is the expose it to as many people as possible. UFC did a fine job of this with the move to Spike TV, and the advent to the Ultimate fighter, a program that features up and coming MMA guys trying to break into the UFC.

The UFC has also done a good job at staying away from the "freak show" like competitors that would for sure garner a quick PPV sale, but in the aspect of legitimizing the sport, take them back a few years.

There were rumblings around the MMA fan sites that a major network was thinking about putting MMA on a prime time slot and seeing what would happen. Everybody thought this would be a fantastic idea as long as it was the UFC, far and away the best promotion in MMA, but more than likely due to the owner of UFC being a money hungry a hole, CBS went with Elite XC, a fighting promotion I knew little about other than they have shows on Showtime.

The next step for MMA and CBS to have a good showing was to get a Star in MMA to headline the first show. The problem is, if you are a star in MMA, your already in the UFC. Enter Kimbo Slice. A 34 year old former homeless person, who is a youtube superstar for his backyard brawls, and body guard for the porn site bangbrothers(i think). In the MMA world this guy is not highly thought of. He has lead hands, sure, but MMA is much much more than heavy hands and a solid jaw.

Non the less Kimbo was perfect for this Match. He was a name that people knew, and he would get the non MMA fan to watch because you never knew when this guy would pop off and kill a guy with his fists. So you get your star to go against a guy he should be able to beat(thompson) and hope Kimbo knocks his head off early.

Step 2 for the night is put a fight right before the Kimbo Slice match that would be a true MMA fight, between 2 good performers, and have it be one hell of a match. That's where the Lawler vs Smith match comes in. Lawler was made famous a few years ago as a hard hitting star of UFC. He is now a little older but still one hell of a fighter.

Lastly, you want to put on the card some matches that will either A)set up future bouts(Rodgers vs. Murphy) B) separate yourself from UFC(the girl fight Carano vs Young) or C)pray from knockouts.

EliteXC was this close to having all those thing work out on Saturday.

The first 3 matches went perfectly. Rodgers opened the show with a knockout and stayed undefeated, and will set up for a nice Rodgers vs Kimbo fight in the near future.

Fight 2 saw another early knock out that was exciting, and the third fight was the chick fight. The hot chick and face of women MMA won and did so in style with the first round of trading blows and then getting the stoppage when Carono hit Young so damn hard in the left eye it swole shut.

Fight 3 was the Lawler(son of Jerry the King) vs. Smith. Now this fight needed to be good. This was the traditional MMA fight between two legit MMA guys. No gimmicks, just good MMA. And it was

For 2 1/2 rounds. Then Smith got poked in the eye inadvertently. And the fight was stopped. What was a war between these two guys, and it was exciting and explosive, and fun to watch, as all the action took place standing up, was over with the blink or should i say poke, of an eye. Neither fighter wanted to stop. The crowd wanted to see a winner. I was yelling at the screen, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria.

Not good for EliteXc, not good for MMA. Stopping a GREAT fight like that. For shame.

So now it was time for Kimbo to kill someone. Only he didn't. He got taken to the ground early and often. Thompson tryed to turn this into a MMA fight. Who does he think he is? Didn't he know that he was supposed to lose to Kimbo in like 30 seconds? Don't take him to ground where you can probably beat him.

But that's what Thompson did, and to Kimbo's credit, he held his own. He did just enough to stay alive and in the third round we all got what we wanted, when one of Kimbos tree trunk like fist's literally exploded thompson's ear. While not the knockout they needed, a knockout none the less.

So the night was a good one, but not really what they hoped for. They were this close to really showing what MMA was all about, but then came up just short. If the Lawler Smith fight would have been finished, and Kimbo not looked so beatable, this thing would have taken off.

But today, most sports guys are saying how they just don't get it. And its sad. MMA was this close. Maybe next time.

UFC and one reason its demise might be near

One thing about the UFC, the MMA thorough bread, that has always caught my eye, is how hard the fighters really seam to fight. You hardly ever get a Guy in the octagon that just seems to be there for the pay check.

The reason for this is simple, 99% aren't there for the paycheck. They ARE there because they love it. He is a rundown from last weekends UFC pay per view and how much money each fighter got.


UFC 84 Payouts
B.J. Penn ($250,000 to fight and win)
Sean Sherk ($35,000 to fight)
Wanderlei Silva ($150,000 to fight, no bonus)
Keith Jardine ($10,000 to fight)
Goran Reljic ($6,000 to fight and win)
Wilson Gouveia ($18,000 to fight)
Lyoto Machida ($100,000 to fight and win)
Tito Ortiz ($210,000 to fight)
Thiago Silva ($50,000 to fight and win)
Antonio Mendes ($4,000 to fight)
Rousimar Palhares ($10,000 to fight and win)
Ivan Salaverry ($20,000 to fight)
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou ($80,000 to fight and win)
Kazuhiro Nakamura ($20,00O to fight)
Rich Clementi ($40,000 to fight and win)
Terry Etim ($10,000 to fight)
Yoshiyuki Yoshida ($12,000 to fight and win)
Jon Koppenhaver ($8,000 to fight)
Dong Hyun Kim ($40,000 to fight and win)
Jason Tan ($3000 to fight)
Shane Carwin ($12,000 to fight and win)
Christian Wellisch ($10,000 to fight)
Total Payout: $1,098,000 - 3.8 Million in just ticket sales
These numbers do not include sponsorships or fight bonuses. Fighter also incur the cost of taxes, medical, licenses, gym dues, and more.
Fighter Bonuses of $75,000 go to:
Fight of the Night: Goran Reljic and Wilson Gouveia
Knockout of the Night: Wanderlei Silva.
Submission of the Night: Rousimar Palhares

So they awarded the fighters somewhere in the 1.2 mill range and they made, on just ticket sales, 3.8. That's kinda fucked up.

With the fact that Dana White is an ass hole, and Elite EX going to CBS this summer, and other company's giving guaranteed money, UFC might be in some trouble.

I love the fact that you still get paid more to put on a good fight and win, and I don't want to see MMA going the way of boxing where the money is made before the fight and has little to do with who really wins the fight, but it seams the UFC could pay their guys a little more.

Coolest moment ever in UFC

Now, I am a semi UFC/MMA fan. I like to watch it and I know a little bit about what goes down. I now have a new favorite fighter, Nate Quarry. He fought some douche bag guy from Canada named Starnes at last weeks UCF 83. Here is a tribute video to Starnes who just runs away. Why is Quarry my fav? Watch until the end and you will find out.



Just like Rocky ended the cold war, I think we can now all get along with Canada.

H.T. Fanhouse

Back, Bigger, and Full of it.

I would like to apologize for the past few days, Brown is off in Hawaii for work, i don't even know if the somas even know what a computer is, and I have been taking care of business with my family over the past few days, so sorry for the lack of posts over the past few.

Well, I'm back bitch.

To start off this short week lets quick hit some big stuff.

NBA

Number one, Dunk contest. Best I've seen in years. Birthday cake was greatness, Gay's off the suport beam was highly under rated, and Dwight Howard. Damn. If you didn't see it, here is an abridged verson.



Talking about Howards Superman Dunk, he said in an interview with hoopsworld, He said he "ment to throw the dunk in," because only superman could do that. Well done sir. Lets just hope he doesn't get into horse ridding. Too Soon?

Jason Kidd is finally a mav, more about that later today.

College Hoops

Kelvin Sampson, looks like you got your hair cut off. Look if you sleep with a snake, your going to get bit. The same shit that he did in Oklahoma, he did with Indiana, and now one of the better teams in the Big 10 may be suspended by the NCAA.

In a game that I'm sure made Brown smile, Texas Beat Texas A&M by a bunch, and Baylor lost to Oklahoma. Texas is now in my big 6, that the 6 teams that I think have a shot at winning the Dance this year. More on that later in the day or tomorrow as well.

MMA

I enjoy MMA, but I don't follow it like some of my friends. I did here this rumor that UFC might sign Kimbo Slice, so that they can fight him against Brock Lesner. I would pay for that.

NASCAR

Randy Newman, came from nowhere and proved not only does he "love LA," but he loves winning at Daytona as well. Didn't know the great song writer from all the Pixar movies was into racing? What ever floats your boat i guess.

***Correction, Its Ryan Newman that won, not singer song writer Randy*****

I hope that catches some people up. More to come today.