News and notes from around the MMA world …

- Fedor Emelianenko is scheduled to announce his future fight plans on Monday.

- Dana White says Randy Couture is still his.

- More about Couture and White is here.

- Rich Franklin is ready for his rematch.

- CBS Sportsline has a UFC 77 prediction piece up.

- Dave Meltzer breaks down Tim Sylvia vs. Brandon Vera.

Talking Points

With UFC 77 upcoming this weekend, I guess I should give my takes on the top two matches. The main event is the rematch between Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin for Silva’s middleweight championship. I recently watched their first match-up again and even in watching it a second time, it’s hard to believe how easily Silva disposed of Franklin, who simply standing next to Silva, looks so much stronger. But when Silva clamped down on Franklin in the clinch, Franklin couldn’t even move. Silva directed him where he wanted him to go and neutralized the bigger Franklin’s strength.

The fight is in Cincinnati, Ohio which gives Franklin a true home field advantage. Silva will more than likely be booed out of the building. Will the home advantage help Franklin enough to beat Silva? In that sense, I think that simply for the fact that Franklin will be fighting in front of a home crowd, he’ll definitely fare better. But also, Franklin has been able to study how the first fight went, and base his strategy on how to avoid getting stuck in Silva’s clinch. Even though Silva is great at jiu-jitsu, Franklin’s best bet may be to use his wrestling to take Silva down and to hold him and use ground and pound to tire Silva out. In my opinion, I think Franklin will fare much better, and possibly even win the first round, but then succumb to Silva in the second round by knockout. In the end, I think Silva is the better fighter, and this fight will show if he’s truly one of the pound for pound best fighters going today. Franklin is good, and beating him definitively again would be an impressive feat.

Tim Sylvia is a very polarizing fighter when it comes to fight fans. On one hand, you see a giant man who has a lot of tools. On the other, you see someone, who should be running through guys, trying to fight defensively, waiting for the right moment, which can lead to boring fights. Vera is exactly the opposite. He’s a smaller heavyweight (really, how much bigger is he than Chuck Liddell?) who presses the action and uses an exciting fighting style with his Muay Thai kickboxing background. There are similarities in this fight with Sylvia’s last fight against Randy Couture. Vera is an aggressive fighter, and one who will keep Sylvia on his toes. Though wrestling isn’t necessarily what he falls back on, Vera can wrestle according to those who’ve seen him train, but hasn’t yet had to. But what he will have is the crowd behind him, much like Couture did, as long as he does come forward against Sylvia. I think that Vera is quick enough to be able to stay out of Sylvia’s grasp, and his kickboxing background will allow him to keep Sylvia away from him. I don’t know that he’ll necessarily be all that impressive, but he’ll be active enough in that he’ll do enough for the judges to anoint him the winner. I don’t see either man being knocked out here, but I do see an exciting stand-up fight and it’s always cool to see a smaller man trade blows successfully with a much larger man.

Nothing else on this show is going to knock anyone’s socks off from a grudge match-up point of view, but guys like Stephan Bonner and Kalib Starnes, who have had television exposure in the past, are on the show. There’s also an interesting match-up between Jason MacDonald and Yushin Okami that takes place, but will not be on the live card.

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Garrett M. Gonzales
MMA.Consumerhelpweb.com

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Labels: Anderson Silva, Brandon Vera, Dana White, Dave Meltzer, Fedor Emelianenko, Jason MacDonald, Kalib Starns, Randy Couture, Rich Franklin, Stephan Bonner, Tim Sylvia, Yushin Okami

They recap the last fight between Blake Bowman and Richie Hightower and Mac Danzig is very angry.

Bowman is put in a heavy brace and has a tear in his knee. Danzig is still upset and says Bowman couldn’t even play recreation league basketball because he’s not an athlete. He says it’s a liability to have him on the show as Dorian Price chuckles.

Mac Danzig says that Andy Wang is like a brother to him. They watch the Ultimate Fighter Season 5 finale, and Wang gets stopped by Cole Miller. Danzig is upset, but Bowman is very happy. They discuss the fight and Danzig says it was a quick stoppage and Wang was recovering. Bowman says that Wang might be able to take a punch, but not a kick. Danzig is upset because Bowman doesn’t have any room to talk after his quick loss and Danzig says that Bowman’s not a real fighter. Bowman decides to avoid him.

Matt Hughes says J-Rock (Jared Rollins) has a good chance to do something. Hughes says that J-Rock gives him fits on the ground in practice. They are targeting George Sotiropoulos as J-Rock’s opponent.

Hughes and Robbie Lawler make a trip to the house. Hughes says that Paul Georgieff has some news from home that he needs to hear straight from the source. Georgieff calls his mom and she tells him that his cousin has passed away. Georgieff says that his cousin was a fan of judo and would probably want to see him stay in the competition. Danzig says that he’s there for him to talk at any time.

Georgieff is allowed to fly out and go to the wake and come back to the house. But, he has to fight before he leaves. Why?

This changes Team Hughes’ game plan as now Georgieff has to fight instead of J-Rock. They choose Georgieff to fight Troy Mandaloniz. Matt Serra says that Mandaloniz, who they call Rude Boy, is much tougher than Georgieff.

Danzig has a bond with nature and he says that the rest of the guys don’t understand. Price is in the house trying to kill a fly with a popsicle, but he’s not having any luck. The fly finally gets caught and killed but Danzig says that the fly isn’t as annoying as some of the guys in the house and shouldn’t have been killed.

Bowman is frustrated because no one is doing the dishes. Billy Miles tells Danzig that they need to soften up on Bowman because he’s going to flip out. Danzig says that Bowman doesn’t deserve to be on the show and isn’t sensitive towards Bowman at all. Bowman decides to tell the rest of the folks about Danzig’s statements, but doesn’t say it’s Danzig who said it. The guys figure it out and some of them are sympathetic towards Bowman.

Matt Hughes, the Queen, is upset that Danzig is picking on Bowman. Hughes calls him out in front of the team and Danzig doesn’t look too happy. Danzig says he sticks by what he said about Bowman not being a real fighter. J-Rock says that in his heart, Bowman wants to fight, but his body is screaming for a pencil and a desk. That was cold.

The guys on Team Serra start talking badly about Danzig because of his bullying ways. They create a caricature of Danzig out of a milk carton and start to goof off. They make fun of the fact that he’s a vegetarian and his claims on the soy milk and tofu.

Rude Boy says that he’s living pay check to pay check and that he needs to win. It’s his dream. He says he fights for everyone who loves him and the ones who doubt him. He did this while holding back tears.

Georgieff has a big height and reach advantage over Rude Boy.

Round One

Georgieff gets caught by Rude Boy and looks to be taken down, but tries to lock in a triangle and what looks to be an arm bar. He goes for a kimura and Serra is screaming at Rude Boy as if he told him 100 times how to get out of these moves. Georgieff is still on his back, but looks to be very comfortable. Rude Boy gets a nice right from the top and they’re back on their feet. Rude Boy throws a right that connects with Georgieff’s jaw and he goes down like a sack of potatoes. Good night.

Winner: Troy Mandaloniz by way of first round knockout.

Georgieff says that Rude Boy didn’t show him much. Well, except when he knocked him out. Hughes was disappointed and said that Georgieff didn’t follow strategy because they didn’t want to stand up with him. Georgieff says that he felt like he was connecting so he kept with it.

Serra says that they are up 4-1 and is having the time of his life beating Matt Hughes.

Next week: Team Hughes needs three straight victories or Team Serra will have the pick of the semi-finals match-ups. Hughes also tries to teach his team a lesson and might have gone too far.

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

News and notes from around the MMA world …

- Mark Cuban has his first “beta test” show.

- Who is to blame for Randy Couture’s resignation?

- Who is to blame for Randy Couture’s resignation (part two)?

- Sam Caplan interviews IFL VP, Jay Larkin.

- Strikeforce is going to bring back the tournament format.

- Dave Meltzer tries to sort out the Randy Couture situation.

- Ken Shamrock says about Frank Shamrock, “He’s my brother and all, but don’t think for a second that I wouldn’t fight him.”

- Brandon Vera says his fight with Tim Sylvia won’t go to the judges.

Talking Points

Could Shamrock versus Shamrock really happen? It could be a very marketable fight if it does.

Ken and Frank are not related by blood. Both men had rough childhoods and Bob Shamrock took them both in and adopted them. They both legally changed their last name in his honor. Ken trained Frank and supposedly, didn’t think Frank had the goods to be a champion, which lead to Frank leaving Ken, and his adopted father, who sided with Ken. The two men are still estranged and have recently began talking about the possibility of fighting each other. They are both experts at building up a fight. They can talk and create interest in a fight that probably wouldn’t be technically good.

Ken did that with his three fights with Tito Ortiz. On paper, most fight fans didn’t think Ken had a chance. But through interviews, both men created the idea that they truly hated each other, and if there’s anything that fans want to see, it’s resolution by seeing who the better man is. Frank has done this as well, most recently with his fight against Phil Baroni, using MySpace and YouTube to create real interest in their fight.

You can see one of those videos here.

There are two things that could hurt the reality of this match actually taking place. First, Ken Shamrock is 43 years old and hasn’t looked good in many years. He also has a son fighting and his interest seems to be there at the moment. Also, if this fight were to happen in California, they’d have a small issue getting the California State Athletic Commission to allow the match since Ken is old and hasn’t looked good lately. Armando Garcia, in the past, has seemed to be unwilling to allow what he deems “mismatches” happen under his watch. I’m not sure if this is a “mismatch”, but he could look at Ken’s past work compared to Frank’s past work and declare that at 43 years old, Ken’s skills could be diminishing enough to put him in danger. I’m not sure I’d agree with that, but I could see the reasoning behind it.

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Thanks for reading,

Garrett M. Gonzales
MMA.Consumerhelpweb.com

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Labels: Brandon Vera, Dave Meltzer, Frank Shamrock, IFL, Ken Shamrock, Mark Cuban, Phil Baroni, Randy Couture, Strikeforce, Tito Ortiz

More bad news for the UFC.

All the MMA news outlets are reporting that Randy Couture has quit the UFC.

The Fight Network’s Brian Knapp reported earlier today that Couture wrote a letter to UFC President Dana White, in which he announced his resignation.

Knapp quoted the letter in the report.

“I appreciate this opportunity the sport of MMA and the UFC has given me,” the UFC Hall-of-Famer said. “However, I’m tired of swimming upstream at this stage with the management of the UFC. It only makes sense at this point in my career to fight Fedor Emelianenko, and since he’s now signed with another organization, I feel like it’s time to resign and focus on my other endeavors.”

Knapp also quoted Couture’s agent, Matt Walker, who said that Couture was on a fight by fight deal.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer followed up on the story as well.

He reported:

It is known Couture was one of the top UFC fighters who was unhappy when reading about the huge money guaranteed in the company’s offers to Emelianenko, because he felt he and a few others were the fighters who helped build the current popularity and they weren’t getting guaranteed income for fights anywhere near that level, particularly since they were bigger drawing cards.

Couture seemed like someone who would be a lifetime spokesperson for not only the sport of MMA, but also, the UFC as well. He was a top draw, the heavyweight champion, and an announcer.

This is the third hardship for the company after losing out on the long time rumored HBO deal and just yesterday, losing Fedor Emelianenko to M-1.

Labels: Dana White, Dave Meltzer, Randy Couture, The Fight Network

The heavy teases for this week’s show surround Dorian Price flipping out and an angry Matt Hughes threatening to take his frustration out on his team.

They recap the fight and Matt Aroyo says that Team Serra feels like they can’t lose and it’s a good feeling.

Matt Hughes says a blind man can see that he’s not happy. He says if he doesn’t think he can win, he won’t play the game. He says that anyone who doesn’t put in 100% in practice gets him next.

Hughes says Serra goes after the weaker guys when he chooses fights, but he only picked one time thus far.

I know I’ve said this before, but Pete Sell has a huge head. It’s shaped like a light bulb. Serra calls Hughes an ego-maniac jerk and a dick.

Jon Koppenhaver from Team Serra wants to fight Blake Bowman because he thinks he can stop him and earn $5,000 at the same time. Basically, he wants to fight who he thinks is the easiest guy.

Team Serra chooses Richie Hightower to fight Blake Bowman. Hughes says he’s surprised because he wasn’t impressed with Hightower at evaluations. Didn’t he say that the last time Matt picked? Actually, I think he said it about Joe Scarola, and he was right about that.

Hightower says he likes Blake, but he’s going to have to crush him like Stalin. Arroyo says that Bowman is more entertainer than fighter. Mac Danzig says he’s not sure what Bowman is doing here as he’s not very experienced, but he wants to help him and likes him. Danzig shows him how to knock someone out and Bowman seems apprehensive and Danzig says that he told him he once broke someone’s orbital bone. Bowman says it was by accident.

Bowman says he doesn’t have an impressive physique. He says he was never supposed to be anything other than a funny guy, but here he is, in the UFC, or at least on The Ultimate Fighter. Hughes says he doesn’t practice or train well, but thinks he’ll do well in the octagon.

Bowman hurts himself in practice and becomes overwhelmed at the fear of letting his team down if he can’t fight. The doctor tells him he has bruised ribs.

Dorian Price gets knocked silly in practice and doesn’t want to stop, but Hughes sees him and tells him to sit out. Coach Robbie Lawler and Price are talking and Price is having a hard time sitting out. The camera man is right there with the boom microphone and Price knocks it away. The camera man tells him that he can’t hit the microphone. Price seems to have a concussion or something and he can’t get over the camera man still filming him while he’s hurting. He goes up to the camera man to ask him to stop again before one of his teammates cuts him off and pushes him back. Price says he only went to confront him and wasn’t going to touch him. Price kind of looks like Grant Hill. Well, if Grant Hill were broke and crazy.

Dana White talks to Hughes and White says you can’t touch the production staff. He didn’t really touch him. He just karate chopped his mic. Danzig says he’s going a little crazy and he wants to help him because he likes him. Price says his teammates don’t talk to him, except Danzig and he can’t trust people to be people. Billy Miles says Price just isn’t ready to do something like this. Price thinks that White won’t hear his story. Wait, isn’t everything on tape as it is?

White talks to Price and reads him the rules and Price just says, “Yes sir.” He’s still on the show. Price says he’s shutting the “F” up for the rest of his time here. Price says Dana White is cool in the Black community. They’re doing a drill where Hughes is working on a ground and pound with Price on the bottom, and at the same time, someone is trying to put his legs in a submission. Price is going crazy telling Hughes that he loves his own blood and it tastes like kool-aid. This dude is crazy.

With the pink hair, Hightower kind of looks like Josh Haynes, who was on the third season of TUF. Danzig says that Bowman might be the only guy Hightower can beat, and if Hightower gets the $5,000 bonus for stopping the fight, he’s going to make sure it’s spent on hospital bills. Danzig also calls him a turd and says that Hightower gets under his skin.

Hightower is very confident. Bowman has both a decided reach and height advantage.

Round One

Bowman doesn’t look comfortable in a boxing stance. Hightower gets inside and starts wailing on Bowman up against the fence. He ate a couple knees, but just let his hands go. Bowman hits the ground and Hightower just punches until Big John stops the fight.

Winner: Richie Hightower by way of first round TKO.

Bowman says that his knee buckled and he couldn’t get up. He tells Hughes that Hightower didn’t knock him down, it was that his knee buckled. Hughes says they have three of the next four fight picks and he doesn’t feel badly because Bowman gave it his all.

Next week: Danzig turns on his teammate Bowman and Team Serra calls him a grump. Also, one of the fighters gets some bad news from home.

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

This is a bonus RNR today as there are two big stories that simply needed to be pointed out.

I’ve seen this one reported elsewhere, but Dave Meltzer reported it today in his news update at The Wrestling Observer website.

He wrote:

Loretta Hunt at www.thefightnetwork.com reported today that Fedor Emelianenko has signed with the Russian M-1 Mix-Fight Championships, a group reportedly being funded by an American entertainment related company. This ends talks of a Randy Couture vs. Fedor fight, or Fedor fighting in UFC.

This is two in a row for Dana White. He has said in the past that the UFC deal with HBO was coming and also stated that they were close to signing Fedor Emaelianenko. Within the last few days, he’s lost both. Losing Fedor is big, as he’s one of the last stars that isn’t under the Zuffa umbrella. He’s arguably the best fighter going, and was nearly invincible in Pride as their heavyweight champion. The one match that White was probably banking on for 2008 was between Randy Couture and Fedor. With the proper build, it would’ve done huge business. But Fedor and his management team were hard to deal with and White had mentioned in the past that it was crazy trying to deal with them. They wanted the flexibility to fight in Russia for Combat Sambo, but White wanted exclusivity with Fedor.

Meltzer also posted today about the the rumored Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva.

Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva is now verbally agreed upon by both sides to take place on 12/29 in Las Vegas.

It looks like this match is now a done deal. It would be the main event (or co-main event) of what is shaping to be a big show at UFC 79. The heavily promoted Matt Serra and Matt Hughes fight is also scheduled for that card.

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Thanks for reading,

Garrett M. Gonzales
MMA.Consumerhelpweb.com

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Labels: Chuck Liddell, Dave Meltzer, Fedor Emelianenko, Randy Couture, Wanderlei Silva