Last week, they promised a Matt Hughes breakdown. We’ll see if we get it.

They recap last week’s fight and Dan Barrera says that the reason he didn’t let Ben Saunders up is because he saw his eyes flickering in and out of consciousness and he wasn’t sure whether to go get him or not. I saw Saunders smiling. They show Hughes yelling at Barrera, telling him that he’s not following the game plan. He says that Barrera pissed him off.

In the back, they show Barrera telling Hughes that it just didn’t go his way. Hughes was still yelling at him telling him that he didn’t do what he said he was going to do and that’s what happens when you let it go to decision (meaning, judges possibly getting the fight wrong, which they totally didn’t here). Barrera just agreed with him. Hughes tells him not to talk.

Hughes says it’s the first time on the show that he wished he wasn’t on the show. Barrera says that he believes God gave him “that Spartan heart”, and he will keep training hard. Dana White says that he’s never seen Hughes like this before. Hughes says that his guys don’t want to fight, and White disagrees and says that Barrera fought hard. White tells him to have the “come to Jesus” meeting and tells him to punish them (his team) for not listening. He tells Hughes to bust them and to beat the living shit out of them. White’s words, not mine. White says that Hughes needs to be a leader and not be down, because his team is already down.

Hughes tells his team that they have a strategy and he’s not trying to make a striker out of a grappler and points to Paul. He says he left a 10 month daughter to come on the show and tells his team he wanted to leave. He says he’s not going to give it all he’s got and have his guys not do the same. But then he says it takes a real man to stand when he shouldn’t and he just wants his guys to give him a reason to stay on the show. He says that he’s also frustrated because Serra has cursed him out in public and he’s irritated that he’s losing to him.

At practice, he tells his guys that he’s going to find out what they’re made of. Mac Danzig says that Hughes put them through a hard workout. Hughes says if he needs to be more of a hard ass to get one of his guys into the final, he will. J-Rock says he nearly walked out and he’s not really sure why Hughes is upset. Hughes screams at J-Rock and says that Barrera was scared and that’s why he let Saunders lay on the ground.

Danzig says that it takes time and Barrera hasn’t fought much. Billy Miles tells Danzig that most of the guys on the show this year are rookies. I can’t believe they didn’t edit that out. That’s the main problem with this season so far. There are far too many guys who act like they’ve never been in the cage before and many of the fights are too tentative. Danzig says that Hughes lets the competition with Serra take over his judgment.

Barrera comes back to the house and Yoda Danzig gives him a pat on the back and tells him he’s young in the game and that he did some things Danzig wouldn’t have been able to do during his own fourth fight.

Serra thinks that it’s Hughes’ ego that’s out of control and that Hughes isn’t giving his fighters tough love. Hughes chooses the next fight, which is J-Rock against George Sotiropoulos, who I’m just going to call George. J-Rock says that he’s their best guy. We’ve seen very little of George so far this year. Saunders says that George is the one guy that’s not a part of Team Serra. He says he’s in it for himself.

Serra says that George is definitely one of the favorites. He says he also has the best work ethic on the team. J-Rock hurt his ribs rolling with one of the coaches and after being told that he’s going to have to seek out medical attention, he breaks down and cries.

J-Rock comes back from the doctor’s and says he’s ok and it’s just a bruise so he’s happy. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I had to see him cry again. Blake Bowman thinks that J-Rock is a dark horse to take the entire show. Danzig says that after him, he thinks J-Rock and George are the next best guys.

George wakes up earlier than the rest of his team and Saunders is upset that he didn’t wake them up again. It’s been a running theme for Team Serra this season. George says he did wake them up, by putting on the light. George says that Saunders complains and whines about every thing. He says that he’s not his mom and he’s just here to fight.

Serra says that if it was a bodybuilding contest, J-Rock would win hands down. But he says that George is going to give anyone hell. After the weigh in, they face-off for the picture and it wasn’t the usual friendly face-off. Serra says J-Rock tried to act tough, which means he’s not really tough, then cuts a promo on him in the back area.

J-Rock and George are eating breakfast together and J-Rock can’t believe they are going to fight in a few hours. He thinks the entire situation is just weird.

Round One

George hits the first punch with a right hand 45 seconds in. He throws another nice right that connects. J-Rock seems to have a hard time pulling the trigger. He finally throws a nice leg kick that lands nearly two minutes in. J-Rock throws another kick, but George catches it and tries to take him down to no avail. J-Rock throws a swinging front kick while George was trying to get up, that would’ve been very illegal had it landed. J-Rock makes George stumble with what looked like a punch. But George is far more active and doesn’t have that same bug eyed, rookie look that J-Rock does. Just like that, George lands a big punch, J-Rock goes down and George hammers him from the top and J-Rock seems to be out. It’s over.

Winner: George Sotiropoulos by way of first round TKO

After the fight, J-Rock, in one of the great sour grapes moments, says that Matt Serra is annoying and should shut the F up. It looks like a left uppercut was the big punch. Serra laughs while he mentions that his team is up six to one on Hughes’ team.

In the back J-Rock is crying again. It’s so hard watching a man cut out of granite, with a mohawk hair cut cry. Could you imagine Mr. T when he was Clubber Lang on Rocky III crying? No, because he was a clubber. He then picks up a chair and throws it, nearly nailing poor Paul with it. This is Chris Leben all over again. He goes outside and continues to cry. Dana White says that he has nothing to be ashamed about. He just got caught. He tells him to learn, come back, and fight again.

Next episode: It’s Tommy against the War Machine in the last fight of the first round. Hughes says that Tommy reminds him of himself. War Machine says that he doesn’t have a father or mother and says he’s his own worst enemy.

Labels: Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, The Ultimate Fighter, The Ultimate Fighter Season 6, TUF

News and notes from around the MMA world on Halloween …

- Sean Sherk appeals his positive steroid test today before the California State Athletic commission.

- Here’s the meeting agenda for the CSAC meeting.

(After I posted, it came out that Sherk’s decision was postponed until November 13th.)

- Dave Meltzer talks about the evolution of the heavyweight division.

- Where are you Andrei Arlovski?

- Meltzer covers the latest UFC press conference in which Dana White and Lorenzo Fertita refute Randy Couture’s claims.

- Adam Swift covers both the UFC bonus system and UFC contract in detail.

- Din Thomas was arrested on Tuesday.

- Time magazine covers the Randy Couture/Dana White saga.

- The IFL will ditch the city based teams in favor of fight camps.

Talking Points

I will have The Ultimate Fighter Season 6: Episode 7 report up here later tonight.

Dana White and Lorenzo Fertita held their own press conference yesterday to refute the claims of Randy Couture, that he was underpaid. In my mind, Randy is someone who felt that he gave his all and that as the face of the UFC, they should’ve taken care of him a little better. He’s simply a disgruntled employee. Now does he have a right to be? I’m sure in his mind, it’s justified. I think the public is currently split with the he said she said. It’s probably half who feel that Couture should honor his contract, and half who feel that he’s justified in leaving the company.

Sometimes as fans of the sport, we tend to forget that this is also big business. It was big business enough to be written about by Gary Andrew Poole from Time Magazine. The article doesn’t really break any ground, but does show that the UFC is in very much in the public eye. I have definitely noticed that Dana White has been very respectful towards Couture, and understands that the best thing for the UFC and the fans is for Couture to agree to come back. He doesn’t want to completely burn bridges with Couture, because by doing that, the UFC will look like the bad guy and possibility lose out on Couture coming back for good. For some reason, it just fascinated me that Time Magazine was covering the Randy vs. Dana story.

On a completely different note, a friend sent me a YouTube video of a crazy finish to a fight. You think Anderson Silva is unstoppable? Check out Ryo Chonan’s heel hook out of nowhere on Silva in Pride some years ago. Josh Barnett narrates. It might take a crazy fluke like that to beat Silva again.

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Thanks for reading,

Garrett M. Gonzales
MMA.Consumerhelpweb.com

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Labels: Anderson Silva, Andrei Arlovski, Dana White, Dave Meltzer, Din Thomas, IFL, Lorenzo Fertita, Randy Couture, Ryo Chonen, Sean Sherk

News and notes from around the MMA world …

- Here’s video of the Randy Couture press conference.

- Denny Burkholder blogs both Couture’s press conference and Dana White’s press conference which went on at exactly the same time.

- Kevin Iole has thoughts on what Couture wants.

- UFC and Spike agree to work together until 2011.

- Dave Meltzer says that Dana White is banking on Brock Lesnar.

- Adam Swift has more on the UFC/Spike TV deal.

Talking Points

The big news was definitely the dueling press conferences yesterday. I don’t have much more to say than what the writer’s in the links I posted above said. There wasn’t really any “news”, other than the fact that the UFC and Spike TV agreed to continue working together.

I do have a fun story from last weekend that relates to a lot of things. Last Friday, I was at WrestleFanFest 2007, which was a wrestling and MMA convention. The promoters booked the famous Cow Palace in San Francisco, and promised tons of stars. On the wrestling side, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Goldberg were the headliners. And early on, they promised Nick Diaz would show for the MMA show (he didn’t), but at least Don Frye was there. To say that it was a mammoth failure is the understatement of the century. I only attended on Friday night, which wasn’t the MMA night, and there were maybe 250 people there maximum. I did get to see Tony Burton who played Duke in the Rocky movies, as well as the great Bud Bundy (David Faustino), who looks very old these days. Traci Bingham also asked me if I was taking her picture with my cell phone and sadly, I had to tell her I was sending a text message. Maybe I should’ve lied and told her I was taking her picture. I also chatted shortly with Mia St. John, the former Playboy Playmate and boxer, who was scheduled for her first MMA match on Saturday. It was canceled by the California State Athletic Commission and when I asked her about it, she said they didn’t think she had enough jiu-jitsu training under her belt.

The weekend turned out to be horrific. The promoters stiffed most of the talent, and Don Frye was actually sucker punched twice by Leland Chapman’s boxing coach. Who is Leland Chapman you ask? He’s the son of “Dog The Bounty Hunter”. The MMA show for Saturday was canceled for what seems to be a bunch of different reasons. On Bryan Alvarez’s Figure Four Daily radio show, Mike Lano, who was there the entire weekend and was supposed to be emergency PR, said that the show was canceled because they didn’t have enough booked fighters to fill out an entire fight card. It was also rumored that they didn’t have a legitimate cage to use.

I attended the wrestling show on Friday night, which was a showcase of a bunch of old wrestlers. I happened to sit next to Shannon Ritch’s wife and stepdaughter. Ritch is an old fighter who according to Sherdog, sports a 38-61 record. His wife, who was a very nice lady, said that Ritch and Don Frye were scheduled to announce the MMA show that was scheduled for Saturday. Ritch was involved in a pro wrestling battle royal (Ritch’s wife said that he’s done pro wrestling in Japan). When I saw that he was involved and that I didn’t even recognize anyone else in the battle royal other than Chavo Guerrero Sr., I asked his wife if he was scheduled to win. She said he was scheduled to be one of the last two people in the match. Not a pro wrestling fan, she didn’t really know what to expect and just pretty much laughed at the horrible theatrics. Ritch did win the match, by the way.

She mentioned that Ritch fought Brian Ebersole in San Francisco last year. In that match, Ritch had an injured back and tapped out in what the athletic commission saw as a work (read: fake), and decided to rule the match a no contest. She said that the California commission was too harsh and was ruining the sport in California. I didn’t really counter any of her arguments, because obviously, with her husband being involved, she’s going to have some kind of bias, and it’s definitely warranted if she believes it’s warranted. I also asked her how it was being the wife of a fighter, and she seemed used to the idea that her husband gets punched in the face for a living. But he’s been doing it so long, either she’s used to it, or he probably would’ve quit already. Definitely an odd night, but it was memorable.

Shannon “The Cannon” Ritch

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Garrett M. Gonzales
MMA.Consumerhelpweb.com

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Labels: Bill Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, Dana White, Dave Meltzer, Don Frye, Mia St. John, Randy Couture, Shannon Ritch, Spike TV

The show starts without a fight recap. It makes sense. That last fight wasn’t worth recapping.

It starts with Dana White and the teams out on the wrestling mat. Matt Serra gets to choose, even though Matt Hughes was kind of forced into his pick last week based on the circumstances. Serra chooses Ben Saunders to face Dan Barrera. This season, the coach whose team wins the most fights, gets to choose the next round of match-ups. With Serra up 4-1, Hughes’ team has to win all the remaining match-ups, to have a say.

Barrera at least looks like he’s in good shape. He probably is the most cut fighter in the tournament. Hughes says that he has a lot of energy and J-Rod says that Barrera kneed him in the nuts in training. J-Rod says it was on purpose and then went after him, trying to make him pay in their grappling training.

Saunders is a Bruce Lee fan. He also looks like he’s in pretty good shape and is taller, but skinner than Barrera. They are building this up as possibly the best match of the first round.

Barrera says he automatically wakes up at 4:15AM every day, and doesn’t use an alarm clock. He then starts running and working out. He’s doing this with workout pants that are ripped all the way up his thigh. He says the pain is the only friend you’ll have in the octagon, so he welcomes and enjoys it.

The guys say that Barrera has to go to the bathroom all the time, even right when they are ready to train. The guys wonder what he does. The camera films him psyching himself up. This dude is weird.

Hughes says that Barrera is going to the school of hard knocks for bullying Blake Bowman the previous day. And Hughes pretty much humbles him. This was an old school Stu Hart stretching session. Barrera says some wacky quote that basically means that he learned his lesson. Barrera’s hand was swollen because of the action. Hughes may have killed his own chances by being a bully.

The hand literally looks like a very fat man’s hand. He goes to the doctor to get his hand checked so he can actually fight. He’s ok to fight, but still pretends like he has to go home to trick his teammates.

Barrera gets a call from his wife, which doesn’t usually happen unless it’s an emergency. She seemed to have some sort of panic attack and describes it as feeling like she was dying. He tells her that she needs to be strong and pray. She thinks it’s the devil. You know, if my wife thought she was dying and she was having some sort of attacks, I don’t think I’d stick it out and fight. He must think she’s going a little overboard and exaggerating. He thinks a lot of it is just stress because he quit his job in the fire department to be on the show and his wife might be worried about money struggles.

Mac “Yoda” Danzig tells him it’s going to be alright. Saunders jokes that he’s going to take care of his woman after he beats him.

Saunders has a six inch height advantage and a huge reach advantage. Barrera was just 1-0, while Saunders had four wins on his record.

Round One

They are both left handed. Barrera sticks his head in there and immediately gets kneed right in the forehead. Saunders is throwing lots of high kicks so far. Barrera seems to have some trouble finding his range with the taller guy. Barrera turns right handed and knocks Saunders down with a big right. After Saunders goes for a submission, Barrera lets him get up, only Saunders doesn’t want to get up and after about 30 seconds, Herb Dean makes him stand up. Saunders gets in another punch that puts Barrera on one knee, but when they clinch, Barrera throws him down to the ground. It’s a stalemate again with Barrera on his feet and Saunders on his back. Herb Dean wants them to work. Barrera goes back and forth between fighting right handed and left handed. Saunders gets another huge knee in and it cuts Barrera. He gets in another before the round ends. Very strong round for both guys.

Round Two

Hughes seemed to be pissed at Barerra for not allowing Saunders to get up and for not listening to his corner. Serra tells Saunders to do everything with bad intentions. Barrera’s cut looks pretty bad. But Saunders is also bleeding at the nose from the big right that Barrera hit him with early in the first. Barrera seems to be more comfortable getting inside, but he’s also eating knees when he does get in there. Saunders is just loading up with his left leg for kicks, both high and low. Saunders hits an inside leg kick and follows up with a right hand. They clinch, and Saunders drops him with a knee. Barrera looks lost and can’t keep him off. Herb Dean asks Barrera if he can see and he says no, which is code for “Please stop the fight.” Barrera says no, that he can’t see and Dean was ready to stop it before he asked him once more and Barrera had second thoughts and decided to keep going. They go to the ground and Barrera goes for an arm bar that has no chance. It was completely Saunders’ round and it might’ve even been 10-8.

Everyone thinks there’s going to be a sudden death third round. The thought is that Barrera won the first and Saunders won the second. But it looks like that’s not the case. Hughes says Barrera wasn’t listening to anything, but still won the first round. The second was very clearly for Saunders. Dana White reads the score card and it looks like two of the judges gave Saunders the first round. I would’ve scored it for Barrera, but it was close enough.

Winner: Ben Saunders by way of majority decision.

Hughes is livid. He goes to the judge’s table and asks where the judges went to school and then asks if they got the judges from the classified ads. White seems to agree with Hughes that it was horrible. Barrera did get the big knockdown, but Barrera was on the ground as well. The fighters get $5,000 for submitting or knocking out an opponent and neither did in this fight, but White gave them both the $5,000 for having such a great fight. Serra goes into the Team Hughes locker room and tells Barrera that he showed balls.

Hughes is bummed out.

Next week: Hughes is so frustrated that he says doesn’t want to be on the show anymore. White tells him that he knows what he has to do and says to “bitch slap these mother fuckers.” Not sure if that’s how you get control of your team or not, but it seems as if White is telling Hughes to work his guys extra hard in practice. Ya, something like that. I have a feeling next week is going to be like Stu Hart’s dungeon.

Labels: Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, The Ultimate Fighter, The Ultimate Fighter Season 6, TUF

News and notes from around the MMA world …

Here are links to the UFC 77 follow up.

- Alex Marvez was live for Silva vs. Franklin 2.

- Anderson Silva has arrived.

- It’s too early for retirement talk for Rich Franklin.

- Silva overwhelms Franklin.

- Here are six top potential candidates for Anderson Silva, from one perspective.

Other news …

- Dave Meltzer writes about Fedor signing with M-1.

- Ken Shamrock talks about Dana White, Randy Couture and more in this interview.

- Brock Lesnar says he won’t turn down any opponent.

- Strikeforce has scheduled a four man middleweight tournament for their November show.

Talking Points

In addition to being a huge MMA fan, I’m also a pro wrestling fan at heart. I remember watching Brock Lesnar start out in WWE and thinking that he was going to be the one guy to take the torch from guys like Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Rock. He seemed to be a quick learner and had freak-like athletic ability for someone who was nearly three hundred pounds. Both of those things translate to MMA. The key is that he is able to progressively grow in his career, versus having to fight someone with a lifetime of experience compared to him, right off the bat. He’s a rookie in the sport, though he has the ability to grow quickly because of his wrestling ability, being a legit D-1 college wrestler. Pat Militech, who has worked with Brock, stated that he has tremendous potential.

What Brock understands is how to sell a fight. During a short interview with Joe Rogan at UFC 77, he was able to convey in such a small amount of time that he was not only here to fight, but that he was going to be entertaining as well. He showed off a charismatic personally, one that you don’t usually see with many fighters. And though MMA die hards who don’t enjoy pro wrestling will say that it’s 100% sport and there isn’t a need for showy and in your face promotion, all you need to do is look at boxing. Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya drew the largest PPV buyrate of all time. Part of that reason was because of the HBO produced 24/7 show that was a documentary about the build-up to the fight, but also a platform for each fighter to show some personality. Floyd Mayweather even talked about having to be the “bad guy”, because De La Hoya was so loved. And at the end of the fight, they had nothing but love for each other, so much of what they had built up, was definitely for show.

With Lesnar in tow, the UFC has a superstar in the making, as long as his fight game progresses as much as his potential says it could. I’m definitely looking forward to watching him fight.

If you want to contact me, click here.

Thanks for reading,

Garrett M. Gonzales
MMA.Consumerhelpweb.com

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Labels: Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, Dana White, Dave Meltzer, Fedor Emelianenko, Ken Shamrock, Randy Couture, Rich Franklin, Strikeforce, UFC 77

Here are the quick results for UFC 77.

Alan Belcher vs. Kalib Starnes

It was an exciting first round and both guy were throwing big shots, but Belcher’s punches had more on them. He cut Starnes badly as well above the right eye. In the second round, the doctor stopped the fight because he could see Starnes’ skull.

Winner: Alan Belcher by way of second round TKO because of doctor’s stoppage

Eric Schafer vs. Stephan Bonner

Shafer won the first round easily, controlling Bonner on the ground and getting a rear naked choke at the end of the first round. Bonner came back in the second and grounded and pounded Shafer into a stoppage. Shafer just covered up and didn’t do much else to stop him.

Winner: Stephan Bonner by way of second round TKO

Jorge Gurgel vs. Alvin Robinson

The first two rounds showed some really good jiu-jitsu with Gurgel winning the first round by staying on top of Robinson and getting good positioning. The second round was the opposite with Robinson getting the better of the positioning and using a ground and pound to bloody Gurgel. Gurgel’s face was swollen and puffy. Robinson was on top of Gurgel the entire third round and made it an easy victory. Two of the judges even gave Robinson a 10-8 round in the third.

Winner: Alvin Robinson by way of unanimous decision

Brandon Vera vs. Tim Sylvia

Sylvia controlled the first round by holding him up against the cage. When they were throwing punches, Sylvia was getting the better of it, but he would continue to go back to the cage. In the second, it was the same way until Vera took him down and tried to control him on the ground. As Sylvia was getting up, Vera hit him with a knee, but the referee said that Sylvia was still on a knee, thus it was an illegal blow. He didn’t take a point away but he let Sylvia catch his breath. The last 13 seconds of the fight saw Vera score late with kicks and punches to try and take the round. In the third, it was all Sylvia. He controlled Vera against the cage and also was controlling the stand up, landing more punches and being more busy. Vera couldn’t keep him off and Sylvia stayed inside with his punches.

Winner: Tim Sylvia by way of unanimous decision

Rich Franklin vs. Anderson Silva

Silva and Franklin circle each other until Silva catches him in a clinch, and starts to manhandle him. Franklin is able to take him down, but he’s not able to do much with him. Silva is putting on a striking lesson. Punches, kicks, and knees oh my. He also pulls a Sugar Ray and makes Franklin miss. Franklin can’t wait for the round to end. The bell saves him as a right hand puts him down and nearly out. In the second, it was more of the same. Franklin’s bell was rung and after an expo, Silva knocks him down with a knee and it’s over.

Winner: Anderson Silva by way of second round TKO.

Demian Maia vs. Ryan Jensen

This was the extra fight they showed since they had some time. Maia caught him in a rear naked choke to finish him in round one.

Winner: Demian Maia by way of first round submission

Good show, but not a great one. And Tim Sylvia wonders why the fans don’t like him?

Labels: UFC 77