Fight Game Blog

Big news late tonight.

Jon Fitch has been cut
According to Dave Meltzer, Jon Fitch and Christian Wellisch were cut today for not signing UFC’s merchandising agreement. Both fighters were advised not to sign the agreement by Duane Zinkin and Bob Cook of Zinkin Entertainment. Zinkin Entertainment also represents Cain Velasquez and Josh Koschek, who also haven’t signed the agreement according to the article. Mike Swick reportedly signed the agreement and is not in danger.

In smaller news, though Fedor’s people probably want you to think it’s big news.

Fedor welcomes “superfight” with Brock Lesnar
It’s a fight that will never happen as long as UFC is the big game in town, but Fedor’s people have called out Brock Lesnar even though they don’t think that at this point, Lesnar could get out of the first round against Fedor. It’s not really news because the UFC would never agree to M-1’s demands, which include co-promotion between the UFC, M-1, and Affliction according to MMA Junkie.

The bargaining power is completely with the UFC and not with Fedor and M-1. They are the number one MMA company even without Fedor. Fedor’s people seem to be trying to bait the UFC by stating that he’s still the number one pound for pound, even though the UFC claims that Anderson Silva is. At the end of the day, unless Fedor is a free agent and can negotiate with the UFC again, this is a fight that won’t happen.

Rather than do a preview for UFC 90, where Anderson Silva defends his middleweight championship against Patrick Cote, I decided to put together something that my brothers at FGB helped me put together.

I posed a question to them that simply asked, who was better pound for pound between Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko?

To me, it boils down to how well you dominate your weight class, the competition level, and how easy you make your wins look. There’s no question that both guys are dominating fighters. They haven’t been tested in years. From a competition level, Silva definitely has the edge (at least over the last few years), and while both guys make it look easy, Fedor wins in ways that make him look disgustingly better than anyone else across from him.

Big D thinks that while Anderson Silva is near unbeatable, he thinks that Fedor’s aura is that of someone who is even more unbeatable.

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DREAM returns from a 2 month absence following the lightweight grandprix finals back in July. On tonight’s show, we will see the crowning of the first ever DREAM middleweight champion as Zelg Galesi, Ronaldo Souza, Melvin Manhoef and Gegard Mousasi, will battle it out in the grandprix finals. The tournament reserve bout will featuring Yoon Dong-sik taking on Andrews Nakahara.

Also on the card, former Pride and UFC star Mirko Cro Cop will continue on the comeback trail as he takes on the dangerous Alistair Overeem. Cro Cop is coming off a win in his DREAM debut, which followed a disappointing run in the UFC. Overeem has looked impressive in recent performances, and rides a 3 fight win streak into tonight’s bout.

Cro Cop got a massive reaction when they introduced all the fighters to the live audience.

I believe they are doing the reserve bout first.
Kenny and Bas are our commentary team as always.

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I listened to the press conference earlier today and took some notes.

Here are the highlights.

- Randy Couture is back in the UFC (duh).

- Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar is taking place in November in Las Vegas, not Portland. Portland was never official and was just some place they were looking to run UFC. Dana White said they’ll eventually run it. It is a title fight and will be five rounds.

- Win or lose, Randy is still in the UFC. He signed a new three fight deal.

- Fedor Emelianenko is under contract to Affliction and thus, the UFC can’t deal with him.

- The winner of Couture/Lesnar will fight the winner of Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera (which is taking place in December) for the undisputed heavyweight championship belt, sometime in 2009.

- White said it will be the biggest fight in UFC history and that research tells him it will do between 1 million and 1.5 million buys.

- Lesnar said that he wondered if he’d fight Couture and just days after, Dana White called him to offer the fight.

- Couture said he’ll fight at 225 pounds. He also said that fighting Lesnar helps with his resolution with UFC and also can help him get closer to fighting Fedor.

- Dana said Fedor needs to prove his greatness and that Affliction is dying on the vine. He said that Fedor doesn’t fight the best so shouldn’t be called the best. Lesnar said, “Who gives a shit about Fedor? I don’t give a damn about Fedor. I’m tired of hearing about fucking Fedor. I’m sick and tired of sitting on the phone, listening to people talk about Fedor.”

- White said he wants to do a countdown show with Brock and Randy, but instead of a one hour show, he wants it to be a two or three part series. This would be similar to the series that HBO did with Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather.

- Dana said, “Randy Couture is relevant, Fedor is not. Fedor is irrelevant.”

- Lesnar said, “Comparing me to Sylvia and Gonzaga is like apples and oranges.”

The buzz around the Internet today has been around the possible return of Randy Couture to the UFC. Couture has been holding out, trying to outlast his current contract with the UFC so that he could fight Fedor Emelianenko on his own terms. He had talked about being open to have the fight in the UFC, but Fedor and his management company could never come to terms with the UFC.

The news today is that not only could he come back to the UFC, but that he could possibly main event the November show which is scheduled to be in Portland, Oregon, against none other than Brock Lesnar. Couture grew up in Oregon and would be the perfect drawing card for that show, if it does happen in Portland.

For those that might think this fight is too early for Brock’s career, well, you’re right. But this could be one of the biggest MMA money fights of all time and when the money is there, you have to jump on it. This could be the biggest fight of either man’s career. And if Lesnar puts up a great battle against the hall of famer, win or lose, he is better off than before. A great showing puts Lesnar on the map way more than a win over someone else. Let’s not forget that Lesnar was involved in the biggest money fight of the year in February against Frank Mir.

Randy Couture back in the UFC is something that many fans want to see. I’ll update the situation as more news comes out.

News and notes from around the MMA, pro wrestling, and boxing world …

- Tons of media for this weekend’s Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito fight.

Cotto is ready for business.
FoxSports interviews Miguel Cotto.
Cotto vs. Margarito is a throwback fight.
There are two sides to Miguel Cotto.
De La Hoya to watch Saturday’s fight closely.
Cotto and Margarito go to war.

This file is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

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I used to do a post once or twice a week at my old site in which I posted links and recapped news stories. I’m bringing it back. The column was MMA only, but because our new site focuses on MMA, boxing, and pro wrestling, so will this column.

News and notes from around the MMA world …

- The UFC Fight Night payouts were just a we bit less than the Affliction payouts. Yes, it said that Tim Sylvia made nearly $800,000 for 36 seconds of work.

- Eric Raskin (for The Ring Magazine and through ESPN.com) says that if you see one fight all year, you have to see Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito.

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Live bands never translate well when playing at sporting events and Megadeth was no exception. The fighters came out onto the ramp and stood around looking bored while the band played.

Unified rules for all matches.

Pyle vs. Ambrose – Ambrose came out aggressive, they clinched against the ropes for a minute, Pyle took him down with a body lock and went almost immediately to mount. Ambrose gave the back, Pyle worked a few choke attempts and finally caught him with the RNC. Quick bout, nothing to get too excited about as it was very one sided and over with quickly. Good victory by Pyle.

Nogueira vs Dewees – feeling each other out with punches and kicks by Dewees. Nothing has any bad intentions and it’s fairly even. Nogueira catches Dewees in a Thai clinch and lands some good shots, gets him in the corner and lands a nice left to put him down. He finishes some with some punches on the ground and as Dewees starts to work his way between the ropes Herb Dean calls it off. Edwin pops right back up after the fight is called. Nogueira wins by TKO.

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You can call it Super Saturday, or in my house, you can call it “Affliction is $40 and UFC is free, so I’ll watch UFC”. But it truly is a big night of fights.

The big one is Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia for the WAMMA Heavyweight title. UFC counteracts with Anderson Silva in his UFC 205 pound debut against James Irvin.

Your friends at Fight Game Blog have put together a preview of sorts. Since there are two shows, we simply took the best five fights on the shows combined and predicted the finishes, the winner, and included a bit of commentary about the fights. Enjoy.

Fedor picture is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0

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News and notes from around the MMA world …

- Dave Meltzer charts former Pride fighters and how they’ve done in the UFC and also says that neither company came out the winner.

- Now Tim Sylvia is teasing that he might be unhappy.

- While we’re talking about Tim, did he use lotion to make his skin slippery against Big Nog?

- Diego Sanchez says he wants Josh Koscheck in a rematch.

- Referee Steve Mazzagatti says that he warned Lesnar, but Lesnar might not have heard him before docking him a point for hitting Frank Mir in the back of the head.

- Frankie Edgar thinks his fight with Gray Maynard at the next UFC Fight Night could end up at every position.

- Strikeforce At The Dome will be broadcast on HDNet.

- Don Frye to fight Oleg Taktarov at YAMMA’s first PPV?

Talking Points

Tim Sylvia doesn’t have the same kind of drawing power that Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz do. When a fighter talks about leaving the UFC because of money reasons, the idea that they can go to another company and increase their worth to the MMA buying audience is preposterous. Randy Couture could make a lot of money for one or two fights, but in no way are those fights going to reach the same kind of PPV audience that a UFC show could. Tito Ortiz has one possible fight with Frank Shamrock that could do decent business outside of the UFC. But Tim Sylvia? He’s not a draw like both of those men are. Even if he were to go to M-1 to fight Fedor Emelianenko, that fight doesn’t draw to a non-hardcore audience. He’s upset that Brock Lesnar made more money than he did, but he has to understand that Lesnar and Mir drew the PPV buyrate and the house. Sylvia is a decent fighter when it comes to a semi-main event spot, like the last PPV (even though they fought last, Lesnar/Mir drew the house), but he’s not going to command the kind of money Couture or Ortiz would because of his history as someone who doesn’t sell fights.