I had the privilege of receiving a last second invite by Stevie J (Angry Marks) to help him interview author of the fantastic book Total MMA, Jonathan Snowden.

Stevie J did a great job with running the interview while I was on my cell phone driving home. As you’ll be able to tell, both Stevie and I read the book cover to cover and both enjoyed it thoroughly. Snowden was a great guest and answered everything we threw at him.

It’s a fun 90 minute interview.

Right click to download or listen to the stream at Angry Marks.

Also, let me know what you think in the comments section or by sending me an e-mail me.

The big news in the MMA world is that Strikeforce bought the Elite XC assets (fight contracts and tape library) from Pro Elite. And, the rumors are that they’ve also secured both Showtime and CBS deals, which is huge.

I’ve pasted the press release sent to us by Mike Afromowitz from Strikeforce.

LOS ANGELES, CA. — In a transaction signaling the dawn of a new era in the world’s fastest growing sport, world championship mixed martial arts (MMA) organization Strikeforce, has acquired certain fighter contracts from ProElite, Inc, the parent company of former Strikeforce co-promoter, Elite Xtreme Combat (EliteXC).

The promotion made history again by bringing, for the first time, a live MMA event to the CBS Television Network on May 31, 2008.

About Strikeforce:

Strikeforce is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made history with its “Shamrock vs. Gracie” event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California state history. The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion Frank Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out record crowd of 18,265. Since 1995, Strikeforce has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming for ESPN and after 12 years of success as a leading world championship kickboxing promotion, the company unveiled its mixed martial arts series with “Shamrock vs. Gracie.” Since then, it has co-produced the first SHOWTIME PPV mixed martial arts event in history with its world championship “Shamrock vs. Baroni” card on June 22,2007 followed by the first-ever mixed martial arts event at the world-famous Playboy Mansion on September 29, 2007.

I bring to you, the first ever Fight Game Blog Awards. Since our website is unique in that we cover boxing, pro wrestling, and MMA, we have three different categories for awards.

In addition to our FGB brothers, Stevie J from Angry Marks is also giving his picks.

Pro Wrestling

Wrestler Of The Year
Big D – Edge
Alan – Shingo Takagi

Was given the ball in Dragon Gate due to top star CIMA being on the sidelines, and the company had it’s best business year ever. He was also outstanding in the ring and is full of charisma.

Duan – Jeff Hardy

This may not be a popular choice, but Jeff has really delivered main event quality matches this year, and he has now finally been given the chance to carry a world title. His ascension has helped freshen up a tired WWE main event scene, and the title change was executed perfectly.

I might’ve given up on WWE this summer if it weren’t for Chris Jericho. He and Shawn Michaels were the sole reason I bought any B shows this year.

Match Of The Year Continue Reading »

According to Loretta Hunt from Sherdog, Justin Eilers was shot dead by his mother’s boyfriend.

This is the second death MMA death reported in just over a week after Justin Levens was found dead along with his wife just over a week ago.

Eilers had recently fought Antonio Silva at the big EXC show in July. Silva beat him with strikes in the second round.

He went 1-3 in the UFC, with his biggest match being a fight for the heavyweight championship against Andrei Arlovski. Since a loss to Brandon Vera at UFC 57, he went 10-1 fighting on smaller shows before his loss to Silva.

I found some of his career information on his Wikipedia page.

Who better than Frank Shamrock to perform his own version of “The 12 Days Of Christmas”?

The promoters kind of hinted to me and they gave me the money to stand and trade with him.

It’s been reported by most MMA sites (including Josh Gross at SI.com) that ProElite, Inc., owner of EliteXC, is closing down the MMA company after CBS/Showtime decided not to purchase them. Even after a very good TV rating for their last CBS show, the possible underhanded actions by the promotion seemed to scare CBS/Showtime away.

After Seth Petruzelli uttered the quote above to an Orlando radio show, it took everything out of the sails for one of the biggest upsets (that wasn’t really an upset) in MMA. Petruzelli claimed that he was hungover when he said it, but it was too little, too late. For EXC, the damage was done. The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation has decided to step in and investigate that manner, and it seems like that’s what it took for CBS/Showtime to get cold feet.

Continue Reading »

News and notes from MMA, boxing, and pro wrestling …

I understand why everyone is bothered with the idea that Seth Petruzelli was told that he would be paid more money to stand with Kimbo. On the surface, I can see why people are up in arms. But I’m not so bothered. Actually, I think that Petruzelli’s lack of consistency in his story is the bigger issue. Originally, he mentioned that the promoter “hinted” to him that he should stand with Kimbo. And then in the same sentence, he said they paid him more money to stand with Kimbo. Petruzelli was, and still is, a lower level fighter. It’s not to say that he’s not good at what he does, but in no way is he in the upper level. So it makes sense that he wants to promote his win as much as possible. It also shows what happens when you put people in main event situations who aren’t ready to be in them. Do you think Ken Shamrock would’ve flip flopped his stories as much has the same thing happened to him?

ESPN.com reported that there is an investigation underway.

After repeated calls from ESPN.com, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation — which oversees the State Boxing Commission — said Thursday that it has opened a preliminary investigation into the matter.

Continue Reading »

EXC’s two most marketed fighters were put on stage last night to showcase the EXC brand, and more importantly, MMA to a CBS audience. Commercials for the event were placed throughout CBS’s Sunday football games. And last night, it was finally time to see if EXC MMA on CBS was a one time thing, or if it was going to be something that would draw ratings and add audience 3 or 4 times a year. With Ken Shamrock vs. Kimbo Slice, this was their best shot at securing a big rating. Unfortunately for EXC, Ken Shamrock was held out of the fight after sustaining an eye injury. The doctors wouldn’t let him fight with stitches over his left eye. It was a deflating experience.

I was watching the show with some very casual fans and when they heard that Shamrock was out of the fight, there were two responses. One, they were disappointed that Shamrock was out of the fight. But two, they wanted to know who Kimbo was going to kill. When Seth was announced as the replacement, they then said, “Who?”

Obviously, the fight was a disappointment. Petruzelli backpedaled immediately at the sound of a bell, as if he was scared and by looking at Kimbo’s face, I can’t blame him. When Kimbo attacked and Petruzelli hit him with a short check right hand, I didn’t really think anything of it. It wasn’t necessarily a hard shot. It’s the kind of shot a boxer throws to stick and move. But Kimbo wouldn’t get up and when he was on his back, he looked like a turtle on his back who couldn’t get to his feet. Petruzelli threw about 5 or 6 straight rights in a quick enough manner to simply overwhelmed Kimbo. I don’t think he was necessarily all that hurt, but you got the thought that maybe one or two or three more of those shots could’ve done some serious damage. After watching the check right hand in slow motion, you can see that it caught Kimbo flush.

It’s unfortunate for EXC that Shamrock got hurt, and also that their meal ticket lost to a guy who you can’t really market around. At least if Shamrock beat him, you could do something with Ken. Mauro Ranello tried to say that Petruzelli was like a modern day Rocky Balboa because he was the underdog, but UFC fans saw many weeks of Petruzelli on The Ultimate Fighter, and there was really nothing there. Can Kimbo be rebuilt? I’m not sure. You can’t build a fighter as Superman and have him lose like a pedestrian. The aura is gone. He can sneer and look as nasty as he wants, but as boxing fans saw with Mike Tyson, once that aura is gone, all he is at that point, is a regular fighter. He doesn’t have that early advantage anymore.

At least Gina Carano held up her end of the bargain. There’s just something about her that is special. I’m not sure that she’s even going to beat Cristiane Cyborg. But she has the look, the personality, and maybe even more importantly, there’s something about her that makes you want to root for her. It’s that X factor that is hard to describe. She beat Kelly Kobold in a very matter of fact manner. She beat her with what she does well, and if the fight went any longer, probably would’ve finished her.

I’m not sure what’s next for EXC, but it doesn’t look good. The bloom is off the Slice rose, but at least they have the biggest female MMA star. I’m just not sure what that means right now.

EXC is back on CBS tonight for the third time. Headlining the show is the much talked about Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock match up. The undercard includes the Affliction sponsored bout of Andrei Arlovski vs. Roy Nelson, and a welterweight title fight between Jake Shields and Paul Daley.

There has been a lot of drama in the hours leading up to this show, as a result of the Ken Shamrock situation. It looks like Ken will not compete, and with kick off time approaching, a replacement is yet to be named. At this stage, we will just have to wait and see what happens.

They start the show by announcing that Seth Petruzelli is taking Shamrocks place in the main event. They then show a pretaped interview with Shamrock. He basically says he’s disappointed, and that he has fought through much worse injuries in the past, but the doctors just wont let him fight.

The announcers are trying to push the strength of the card even without Shamrock. They emphasize that the Arlovski vs. Nelson fight could main event any show on its own. Frank Shamrock buries Ken, saying that he should have been training lighter, and that he’s disgracing the Shamrock name. You just know Frank is still trying to build towards a future fight with his brother. Middleweights are up first.

Continue Reading »

According to many MMA news sites (including MMA Junkie), Ken Shamrock was injured and cut and is not medically cleared to fight tonight. He was scheduled to be in the main event against Kimbo Slice. There’s no word yet on the replacement.