(A country boy can survive)

Old rivals Matt Hughes and B.J. Penn both find themselves preparing for fights these days, only their paths have diverged significantly. While Penn is getting ready to defend his lightweight title against Sean Sherk, who he has vowed to kill, Hughes is getting ready to play gatekeeper against Thiago Alves at UFC 85 in London.

Hughes isn’t crazy about going “across the pond” for this fight, according to a recent blog entry on Matt-Hughes.com. He’d rather fight in Vegas or the Midwest, but hey, the Limeys deserve to see somebody get slammed every now and then, don’t they? Hughes assures us that he’s hitting the gym hard, but he took some time out to post a “Firearms Refresher Course”. I won’t reprint the whole list, which is long, but here’s a taste:

1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
14. Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians.

You get the idea. Matt Hughes loves guns. The part about the swords had me confused, though. Is he implying that we can’t use swords now? Because if that’s the case, I just wasted the $2,500 I spent on that “Conan the Barbarian” authentic replica sword, and after I paid extra for the overnight shipping, too.

Meanwhile in his island paradise, B.J. Penn is so tired of hearing that he doesn’t have the cardio to last five rounds that he’s actually decided to do a little jogging with some friends. Best quote from this video: “I don’t know, man, looks like I’m going to be ready, Sherk.”

Looks like it? As in, you know, probably going to be ready? That’s not what you want to hear.

Find more videos like this on BJPENN.COM

Props: Bloody Elbow

(BF)

Many fighter blogs aren’t that interesting. They’re usually ghostwritten, contain no real insights, and seem half-hearted at best. That said, if you haven’t been reading Jay Hieron’s blog on the Xtreme Couture wordpress site, you have been missing out. The Life & Times of Jay Hieron just hit its fourth installment, and there are some interesting moments. The best part is that you always learn something, but you never know what it will be.

For example, did you know that Randy Couture has a condo in Beverly Hills that he sometimes lets fighters live in when he isn’t using it? Turns out it’s “a sick place”. I’ll bet you also didn’t know that Mike Pyle has notoriously bad gas, or that Jay Hieron has a felony record which has prevented him from getting jobs that aren’t fighting people, or that Xtreme Couture began in the UFC’s “Ultimate Fighter” gym, which Randy Couture and Forrest Griffin had keys to and which the UFC doesn’t use for anything when they aren’t filming.

These things you learn without ever wanting to.

Of course there’s the usual stuff about who he trained with and when, which is generally not too exciting, except for when Gray Maynard first shows up on the scene.

When we weren’t with Bas we were back in Vegas. Gray Maynard came in around that point. I had first met Gray at Cobra Kai, Marc Laimon’s gym, a while back. When a good grappler or wrestler would come to the gym Marc would clear the mat and put him in there with another guy and let the whole class watch. Gray came in and was talking with Laimon and Marc was like, “clear the mat”. I didn’t know who Gray was and he didn’t know who I was. We were just grinding, going at it hard. We were both going for takedowns but nobody could get one. We were really going at it. I knew right away, “this guy is real good”. It went 15 minutes and nobody got a takedown. Afterwards we shook hands. Gray told me who he was and I told him who I was, and that I was a Junior College National Champion. He was Division I for all four years so he didn’t have any respect for me. He told me that. I told him that he better respect me because most of the good Junior College guys are as good or better than the D-1 guys, but it’s the grades that screwed them up. We traded numbers after that and said we’d stay in touch.

Huh. So Gray Maynard is the kind of guy who will tell you to your face that he doesn’t respect you since you didn’t advance beyond junior college, and he’ll say this to you the first time you meet. Kind of makes you wonder how that scenario ended with the two of them trading phone numbers. It’s not often that “I don’t respect you or what you’ve done with your life” is followed by “Hey, can I get your number?”

I guess fighters have their own way of doing things.

-Ben Fowlkes

(The “douche bag” in question.)

This morning, Team Rampage’s Gerald Harris said that Jeremy May “seems to get on everyone’s nerves except mine.” Get on everyone’s nerves? That might be the understatement of the week. Nearly the entire TUF 7 cast hate-hate-hates Jeremy, and said as much in interviews and blog posts that were published today. Here are some highlights; major props to MMAJunkie.

Brandon Sene: “Jeremy is one of those guys [who] just got under everyone’s skin. He’s so abrasive and cocky that in the situation we’re living in, with 16 fighters in a house and them all having strong personalities, it’s not easy to be the one guy everyone thinks is the egomaniac and a jerk. That’s really saying something… He was just saying unnecessary stuff. He was a pain in the ass the whole time we were there.”

C.B. Dollaway: “What can be said about Jeremy May that won’t offend my family and sponsors? This guy would spend countless hours talking about how he would demolish everyone in the house. I honestly think Jeremy is surprised that Anderson Silva is not calling him out. Team Rampage knows they need Jeremy as a training partner and for the sole purpose of gaining control. We want him to win his fights for this reason only. It would be fine if he got stomped for two rounds and pulled out a come-from-behind victory. Maybe a good whooping would humble him.

During the point of the show you saw in Wednesday’s episode, I was really learning to hate this guy, and I am usually a low-key, easy-to-get-along with person. I would be lying if I told you I did not feel like smashing him myself at times. After Matthew Riddle’s fight, I think our whole team was learning how big of an ass Jeremy really was. His comments to Matthew in the van ride back to the house about getting submitted by armbar were out of line. That was a great fight, and both fighters had nothing to be ashamed of…

(Crazy Anderson Silva wallpaper courtesy of Olieng.net)

Over the last couple weeks, Matt Serra came crashing back down to Earth, Rich Franklin got his balls back, Shinya Aoki smothered JZ, and Denis Kang went out like a bitch. So if you haven’t swung by our Power Rankings section lately, please do so. In particular, the lightweight, middleweight, and pound-for-pound lists were freshly updated today. And you may be surprised at how high I ranked Travis Wiuff in the heavyweight division for going all the way at YAMMA 1…

Anyway, give ‘em a look and let us know if you see things differently.

(BG)

(Clearly, this man has his finger on the pulse of the nation.)

Elite XC seems to be putting all its hopes for long-term for success into its TV deal with CBS, but not everyone in the CBS family is a fan of the deal. In a recent story from the Hollywood Reporter (via MMA Payout), CBS and Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone publicly criticized CBS president Les Moonves and his decision to put mixed martial arts on live network TV.

“Les usually asks my opinion,” Sumner Redstone said Wednesday when asked about the four mixed-martial arts fights that will begin airing soon on CBS. This time, the Viacom and CBS chairman said, Moonves did not.

Redstone said the deal, struck with Elite Xtreme Combat, probably was a mistake, not because CBS won’t turn a profit from it but because it is not “socially responsible” to air the typically bloody bouts on free, broadcast TV.

“I’m a lover not a fighter,” Redstone said. “I don’t like the sport.”

Redstone saying that he doesn’t like the sport and isn’t anxious to see it on his network? That’s fine. That’s a personal opinion. He doesn’t have to like “How I Met Your Mother” either, but it’s going to stick around as long as it pulls in ratings, which apparently it does (people really watch that? are they drunk?).

But the remark about airing MMA not being “socially responsible” is intriguing. This is the same network that airs the NFL, which is awesome and also very dangerous and violent. They’re also home to great society-improving programming like ‘Big Brother’ and the Charlie Sheen sex-joke vehicle, ‘Two and a Half Men’. (By the way, don’t miss next Monday’s episode: “If My Hole Could Talk.” Now that’s innuendo!)

Fox Sports president Ed Goren also criticized the move, saying that he didn’t pursue a deal with the UFC because, “we don’t need money that badly.”

Of course, the UFC is said to be in serious talks with Fox’s entertainment division, and Fox Sports Net has aired both the IFL and Pride fights in the past. Seems like maybe everyone isn’t on the same page over at Fox. That’s also probably how they ended up with ‘Temptation Island.’

As much as TV execs love to take the moral high ground when they can, they probably didn’t get those jobs by following their hearts. If MMA proves to be a ratings success, my guess is they’ll put their personal abhorrence of violent sports aside in order to capitalize on it.

(‘Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.’)

When word spread this morning that Chris Leben was locked up in Oregon just a few days after being signed to fight Michael Bisping at UFC 85 in London, we all feared the worst. That fight card has already suffered more than its share of setbacks, and as anyone who watched him on “The Ultimate Fighter” or YouTube knows, Chris Leben is known to enjoy an alcoholic beverage from time to time.

But don’t worry, he’s only in jail temporarily while he sorts out some legal issues stemming from past alcohol-related mischief. Icon promoter T. Jay Thompson clears things up for us:

Chris Leben was not arrested this week for DUI.

When Chris moved to Hawaii he was in the process of completing classes for his probation on an old DUI in Portland Oregon. We worked hard to get his probation transferred to Hawaii but were unsuccessful.

When he got the call to fight Bisping on June 7th in London he knew what he had to do.

He immediately flew to Oregon and turned himself in on the probation violation. The warrant was a “no bail” warrant so he will have to sit in jail for 8-10 days before he gets a hearing. The moment he appeared before the judge after turning himself in the warrant was revoked and he is able to get his VISA for London.

Chris is in excellent shape and will finish his training camp with the help of Matt Hume.

Chris has worked hard the past year to grow both physically, mentally and spiritually. The actions he took to make this fight happen in London show this growth. Chris would like everyone to know he accepts responsibility for his past actions and will face the consequences and continue forward on his journey.

That’s a relief. Losing the Leben-Bisping match would have been a major blow to UFC 85. Crisis averted…for now.

I’m told that I should introduce myself. My name is Ben Fowlkes, and as of today I am joining Cage Potato full-time as a writer. Why is that of interest to you? It probably isn’t, but Ben Goldstein suggested I let you all know who I am, so here goes.

Before this, I wrote for CBS Sportsline, IFL.tv, Crave Online, and occasionally for Five Ounces of Pain. I also wrote the blog The Fighting Life. I recently left the IFL to pursue a full-time gig here, which I am happy to do, having been an admirer of this site for some time.

If you’re wondering whether working for the IFL means hanging out in hotel bars with Don Frye trying to get material for our “Dear Don” column, yes it does. And did I once attend a BYOB strip club with Bas Rutten in the middle of Iowa? Definitely. Did I manage to piss off Matt Lindland in every single interview I ever did with him? Absolutely. Do I think it’s sad that these are the high points of my career? I do.

In short, I love writing about MMA and discussing it with other interested parties such as yourselves, and I’m going to do my best to continue the good work that this site has been doing.

There. Now that’s over with and we can get back to MMA.

(Rich and some of his “fishing buddies” at the Cornhole Throwdown.)

According to his manager Monte Cox, former UFC middleweight champ Rich Franklin is considering a move back up to light-heavyweight, due to his defeats against Anderson Silva and because beating any remaining contenders in the UFC’s middleweight division would be bad for the league. Franklin competed at light-heavyweight for the first 19 matches of his 27-fight career, suffering only a single loss at 205 to Lyoto Machida in 2003. Said Cox:

“He’s fought almost everybody in the 185-pound division. There are some guys that he could fight, but if he beats them it knocks them out of title contention. And nobody is looking to see Rich and Anderson Silva 3 right now, including me…He’s not helping the 185-pound division right now by beating everybody up in it…We’ve talked about going to 205 and how would he match up with some of those guys, with a Forrest Griffin or a Keith Jardine. I think there’re some really good fights. There’s a whole bunch of 205′s that I think would be interesting.”

Agreed, for the most part. You wouldn’t want to put Franklin up against Michael Bisping, and have Ace knock off the last remaining marketable contender to Silva’s belt. But it would be a tragedy if Franklin left the 185-pound division before taking on Dan Henderson — though with few logical fights out there for Henderson as a middleweight, Hendo may eventually move back up to light-heavy as well, so who knows.

What’s more certain is the financial logic behind such a move. Just before his UFC 77 rematch with Anderson Silva, Franklin signed a six-fight deal that would pay him more than the $45,000 base salary he was previously bringing in, beginning with his next fight. Salary figures from UFC 83 haven’t been released, so we don’t know the exact figure at this point, but if Franklin’s per-fight salary is now approaching the six-figure mark, the UFC would want to put him in high-profile fights to draw more revenue from pay-per-view buys and live gate. Booking Franklin against Travis Lutter probably doesn’t represent the best return on investment, in other words. But with the UFC’s light-heavyweight division packed with stars, there are a lot of big-money matchups to be made at 205. Who wouldn’t want to see Ace take on the loser of Rampage/Forrest?

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris will be blogging his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s ep, in which tensions rose between Jeremy May and Mike Brown, and Brandon Sene and Dante Rivera went head-to-head in a three-round war.

***

In case you didn’t notice, Matt Brown isn’t the happiest person in the house. If I had to pull a prank on someone, he would be the last one on the list. Matt seems like the type of person where you wake up in the middle of the night and he’s standing over you, in his underwear, sharpening a butcher knife. So, instead of possibly getting killed in my sleep I chose not to participate in the “lime juice” prank. That’s a national rule: You don’t put lime juice in a Southern man’s dip! Like midgets to amusement parks, gas prices to SUVs, or diarrhea to a track star in the 100-yard hurdles, those two things don’t go together. I actually like the fact that somebody caused some trouble, because we were pretty damn bored. You’ve probably heard that we don’t have any TVs, radio, magazines, books, internet access, phones, and worst of all, no women! Except for the ring girls — and we enjoyed every step they took around the ring. Every step.

The Brown-May incident kind of overshadowed the actual fight pick between Brandon Sene and Dante Rivera. There was no drama between those two, so we just wanted to win and get control. From an mma view, that was a pretty good fight. From a fan’s view, it could have been seen as boring because people like action — especially stand-up action. Sene was busy and could have won the fight if he had escaped more, but Dante maintained control and pulled off the victory. What people fail to realize is that when someone loses on the show, reality kicks in. Brandon had sold his car and had just moved into a house so he planned on making some money to support himself. His only hope now is that someone gets injured and he gets a second chance.

(Painting your nickname on your gloves? Okay, that is pretty cool)

Matt Lindland is known as a man with some strong opinions. He’s also known as a man who loves to voice them even when silence might be the better option. This is just one more reason why he’s a good guy to have in the MMA scene.

But Lindland doesn’t necessarily feel the same way about us, the MMA media. In an interview with Sam Caplan on Five Ounces of Pain, he had these sharp words for those of us who write stuff about MMA on the internets:

The MMA media almost always agrees with whatever Dana [White] says. There’s a lot of media out there that just cow tow to him so that they can get their credentials, or whatever. The MMA media is not journalistically prudent. They don’t do much research; they’re lazy. They don’t do their own stories. They go out and take stories from other people and make up their own. I don’t have a lot of respect for too many people in the media and the MMA media industry. They pretty much promote Dana White.

I’m not going to point out that most of the MMA media exists in the form of websites and most of those websites do not get press credentials to UFC events. I’m also not going to point out that Dana White is often the favorite target for MMA websites and as a result often takes a lot of really personal, really undue (and some totally due) criticism. No, I won’t point out any of that, because that’s not the kind of guy I am.

But I will point out that Lindland’s comment about the MMA media being lazy and not coming up with their own stories appeared on MMA website Five Ounces of Pain, right above a story linking to some news that Sherdog broke earlier in the day.

My point is that yes, we do often write stories about the stories other people have written. I’m doing it right now. We all do it. So does every newspaper in America. Would the better idea be to ignore interesting news just because we weren’t the first ones to report it?

But wait, the conspiracy that Lindland has identified reaches deeper than just the lazy MMA media:

Reminder: A new episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest airs tonight at 10 p.m. on SpikeTV, and Team Rampage member Gerald Harris will be blogging his reactions to it right here tomorrow morning. To commemorate this occasion, here’s an outtake clip from episode three of Rampage laying down the law on his team’s jokesters following Mike Dolce’s loss to Jesse Taylor. Yes, that’s Gerald receiving the totally accidental bitchslap at the end.

I love me some Tonya Evinger — she’s like a cute, perpetually drunk version of Aileen Wuornos.

(Props: TonyaEvinger.ProElite.com via Fightlinker)

(Aoki’s fancy flying guard-pull against Calvancante.)

Are you sitting down? Sherdog is reporting that Shinya Aoki suffered a facial injury in his fight against Gesias Calvancante yesterday, and will not be able to participate in the second round of DREAM’s lightweight grand prix (May 11th; Saitama, Japan). UPDATE: Sherdog amends their story: “Calvancante was approached about replacing the Japanese fighter, but the 24-year-old American Top Team representative could not come to terms with the promotion and has since left Japan.”

Aoki always seemed to have misgivings about continuing in the tournament. Here’s what he said in an interview on DREAM’s website a couple weeks ago:

Are you thinking about fighting on May 11 in DREAM 3?
I win on Apr 29, but not fight on May 11. That’s their business and not me. I’m not well-considered person to agree with fighting on May 11. I’m not thinking about a fight after Apr 29. I may fight if I had an easy fight on Apr 29.

Don’t you want a belt?
Not interested in. My next fight has more meaning than a belt.

And in another interview…

“I have no schedule after April 29 so far. I don’t even think about the 2R. I will have a good result on April 29 and clean up my past.”

So, it’s safe to say that Aoki’s heart wasn’t in DREAM’s lightweight GP past the marquee matchup of him vs. Calvancante, and now this so-called “facial injury” is sounding a little too convenient. But hey, he’s in good company: Kazushi Sakuraba wants nothing to do with DREAM’s middleweight tournament. Good lord, is it too much to ask for DREAM to book fighters that actually want to be involved with them?

(Cheech’s submissions may be legendary, but his cardio is highly suspect)

by Ben Fowlkes

With UFC 84 less than a month away, the issue of drug use among MMA fighters has taken center stage. It’s understandable, at least to a degree. Sean Sherk’s positive steroid test after his title defense last summer put a giant bull’s-eye on his back, even as he continues to proclaim his innocence to anyone who will listen. Both he and Penn came up clean in preliminary tests for their upcoming title fight, but it doesn’t mean the issue has gone away.

A recent MSNBC report would have us believe that this isn’t just an isolated incident or a reflection of the pro sports zeitgeist. Instead, David Avila asks the question, does MMA have a drug culture?

One nameless boxer-turned-MMA fighter claims yes, and it’s not just steroids:

“Oh, the MMA fighters train just as hard as boxers,” said a fighter now working out of Las Vegas who wished to remain anonymous. “But after they train, they party. I mean they drink, they go out. It’s crazy what they do.”

There’s nothing quite like a sweeping generalization to bolster your point, and that’s aside from the fact that training in Las Vegas may be different than training in, say, Minnesota (where Sherk trains) or in the secluded mountains of Big Bear, California (where Tito Ortiz, “Rampage” Jackson, and a host of others go to prepare).

But the UFC’s Marc Ratner – formerly of the Nevada State Athletic Commission – seems to agree:

“I don’t know what to make of it,” said Ratner regarding the large number of MMA fighters failing drug tests compared to boxers. “It’s a different culture.”

The article goes on to quote an MMA writer who suggests that the middle-class background of many MMA fighters may explain the difference in positive tests between boxers and MMA fighters. Boxers are typically poor, he argues, and thus view their shot at a career as “do-or-die”, whereas middle-class MMA fighters are more likely to slack off and use drugs.

This is a strange logic. Are MMA fighters more likely to use recreational drugs because they don’t take their careers as seriously as boxers? If so, how does that fit into the steroid argument?

(GIS result for “Bedlam.”)

— YAMMA veteran Patrick Smith had a little misunderstanding with a “child” (ugh) back in 1999. To learn which other MMA fighters might be living in your neighborhood, check out nsopr.gov.

— UFC 85 has been given the official title of “Bedlam.”

— Wacky middleweight Jason “Mayhem” Miller has been booked to fight Katsuyori Shibata at DREAM.3 (May 11th; Saitama, Japan). Shibata is a former pro wrestler whose 2-3 MMA record includes a loss to Kazushi Sakuraba and a win over a dude named Ice Man. DREAM.3 will also feature the quarterfinals of their lightweight grand prix. (Well, maybe.)

— The lineup of WEC 34: Faber vs. Pulver (June 1st; Sacramento, CA) has been finalized. Besides the much-anticipated headlining bout, the main card also features Miguel Angel Torres defending his bantamweight belt against Yoshiro Maeda, and former WEC lightweight champion “Razor” Rob McCullough taking on Kenneth Alexander.

Joe “El Dirte” Doerksen has become the latest UFC middleweight — after Kalib Starnes and Travis Lutter — to be released from his fight contract as part of the league’s roster cuts. Doerksen’s recent TKO loss to Jason MacDonald at UFC 83 brought his UFC record to 1-5 (and 38-12 overall). As he told Sportsnet.ca:

“(The UFC officials) made it very clear they’re very happy with the way I fight and they want me to come back. But they need me to go put a couple of wins together (first)…I’ve come and gone several times over my career and I’m sure I’ll be back again. It’s not really devastating news. It’s just the cycle I have to go through….I’m just going to go out and do what I always do, put five or 10 wins together and come back and try again. At the end of the day, I know the fight was very well received by the fans and that’s the most important thing to me personally.”

Doerksen has scored notable wins over Lee Murray, Denis Kang, Chris Leben, and Ed Herman outside of the UFC, but seemed to be cursed inside the Octagon. After losing his UFC debut against Joe Riggs at UFC 49, he came back to submit Patrick Côté at UFC 52, but then picked up two more losses against Matt Lindland and Nate Marquardt. Doerksen won six straight fights outside of the UFC before Zuffa took another chance on him, putting him up against Paulo Filho for the vacant WEC middleweight title (which he lost), then giving him UFC fights against Ed Herman and MacDonald (both of which he lost).

No matter how gently the UFC let Joe down, it’s hard to imagine someone with his Octagon track record being given another shot unless he can put together a monumental win streak. Good luck out there, brotha…

“El Guapo” is the uncontrollably violent host of The Men’s Room, a show you can watch on Grand Theft Auto IV‘s in-game television. For more good times, check out the Bas Rutten soundboard.

(Props: MMAMania)

(“The Muscle Shark” finds your rhetoric weak and your platform disingenuous. He also thinks you’re a pussy.)

Considering their recent verbal assaults on one another, it’s almost a shame that B.J. Penn and Sean Sherk didn’t go into politics. Not only do they both have a gift for bashing their opponent, they’re remarkable when it comes to zeroing in on a message and sticking to it.

Sherk has been eager to characterize Penn as a quitter. Granted, he’s not the first to do so, but just to make sure that it sticks he’s been hammering the point every chance he gets, such as in a recent video promo on the UFC website:

“B.J. has a lot of natural ability, but so do I. I’ve got just as much natural talent as he does. The only difference is I’ve got the mental ability and the heart. Come fight night you’ll see that. I’m going to make him quit. I’m coming at him real hard and he’s going to realize, after that first round, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll get right up in his face and we’re going to fight. Mentally, I think he’s got some quit in him. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it in the past. If you push him, he’ll quit.”

But Penn hit back recently by turning that same criticism against Sherk, like a page right out of the Karl Rove playbook:

“He’s been broken before, and he’s been broken bad by Georges St-Pierre. He got broken so bad that he moved down to the 155-pound division.”

See that? Sharp, succinct, and makes for a good sound byte. The McLaughlin Group would eat that up. But Penn didn’t stop there. He also attacked Sherk’s main talking points:

“His only hope is that he can take me into the later rounds and get me tired, but this is The UFC. This isn’t boxing and Floyd Mayweather where you can run the whole fight, where you ask people to pay $60 and then run away the whole fight. This is The UFC so we’ll come out to fight.

As an experienced fighter I shouldn’t say I want to take him out in the first round…but I want to take him out in the first round. I want to beat him by beat down, not by one punch but by beat down.”

Beat him by beat down. You can almost imagine that slogan on bumper stickers and t-shirts, arenas full of Penn supporters chanting it together.

‘Beat him by beat down. Yes he can.’

That’s how you hype a fight, people.

From 411Mania via BloodyElbow. Behold, the lament of a broken man:

“The question it all comes down to for me is, is there a market for MMA? Now coming from the boxing world, when I first saw MMA I didn’t like it. I didn’t enjoy watching it. I found it boring and when it wasn’t boring I found it grotesque. Now what I had to do was learn about it. I had to learn more. I had to learn the moves, the players, the disciplines and the different camps and what they meant. The more I learned about it the more I found I enjoyed it and the more I could appreciate the strategies and I have found that for the most part, the fan base out there doesn’t have a clue. Not a clue what they’re seeing, not a clue what they’re watching and therefore they’re almost uniformly attracted to the UFC light show. The dancing girls, the music, the UFC brand and the spectacular job the UFC’s done in creating that brand…

I sincerely question whether or not there is a market place for legitimate MMA outside of the UFC. Now if you look at the card we had at the IZOD center that was spectacular. That was as good as MMA fighting ever gets and it didn’t make a blip on the radar screen. It was difficult selling tickets, the Monday morning reviews of the event were the fights were spectacular but the place wasn’t very full. What does one do to grow the audience? What does one do to sell tickets besides putting on the best show you could possibly put on? And when you put that show on and you still can’t sell tickets well then you have to ask yourself does the public want this? Do they really want fights? Do they want mixed martial arts? Do they want competition at the highest level of the sport? Or do they want to run around wearing their Affliction t-shirts and swigging Xyience. What is this really about? Is there really a fan base for this or is it a cult? And I’ll tell you, as truthfully as I can, I don’t know the answer.”

— Jay Larkin, CEO of the International Fight League

Well, first off, contempt for the audience will get you nowhere — and I’m not sure that the IFL’s fanbase has a smaller percentage of Affliction-wearing, Xyience-swilling meatheads than the UFC’s. Larkin may eventually be proven correct that there’s no mainstream market for MMA outside of the UFC, but I don’t think the failure of the IFL should be held up as proof of his thesis. I can’t speak for the general public, but as an MMA fan, I’ve been excited about recent fights held in the WEC, Strikeforce, EliteXC, and DREAM in a way that I’ve never really felt for matches held in the IFL. I get the sense that a lot of other MMA fans feel the same way, and for me, the reason is because the IFL never succeeded in promoting and building individual stars. EliteXC is Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano. WEC is Urijah Faber. Strikeforce is Frank Shamrock and Cung Le. The IFL, on the other hand, is a questionable camp system where no single fighter is given more attention then his legendary coach. Larkin seems to think that solid matchups between up-and-comers should have been enough to make his league marketable. Am I a fake MMA fan for thinking that personalities create interest, not just talent?

— Ben Goldstein

We’ll kick things off with Kiyoshi Tamura’s quick demolition of Masakatsu Funaki, which turned out to be the night’s only stoppage-by-strikes (action starts at the 1:17 mark). More vids after the jump; for a recap of the event, click here.

UPDATE: All the broken vids have been replaced…hopefully this batch will last a bit longer.

by Ben Fowlkes

Dean Lister is in a tough spot. He’s a world class grappler, an Abu Dhabi champion, and depending on who you talk to, he may be the best pure jiu-jitsu fighter in the world. Trouble is, when you carry around a reputation like that it’s hard to surprise anyone.

Because Lister’s ground game is so advanced, most of his opponents will do anything to avoid it. They’d rather force him to stand and strike – which he admits he’s been less comfortable with – and rely on providing just enough offense to win.

“It’s frustrating,” Lister says. “Everyone so far has had pretty much the same strategy. My last opponent (Jordan Radev) was supposed to be an Olympic wrestler from Bulgaria. He didn’t want to go to the ground with me at all. I guess that’s how a lot of people approach it though, just trying to stay on their feet no matter what. I don’t look at it as a negative thing. It’s just how it is.”

The problem for Lister is that as good as his ground game is, when he can’t win with it he’s struggled to find other paths to victory. His recent losses to Nathan Marquardt in the UFC and to Ricardo Arona in Pride were both the result of decisions, as were all five of his career defeats.

The UFC recently announced that Lister will get a chance to avenge one of his early losses when he takes on Jeremy Horn at The Ultimate Fighter Finale show in June. The two first faced off in 2003, when Horn took Lister’s King of the Cage middleweight championship belt from him with a split decision victory.

“We’re both different now,” says Lister. “I’m about three times as experienced as I was back then. I only had like five fights back then, now I have fifteen. Then again, he’s probably fought way more than fifteen times since then, the way he goes.

“One thing Jeremy is known for is he’s not afraid to fight on the ground or on the feet. He’s very well-rounded. I just think that no matter what happens, it’s going to be an exciting fight. It doesn’t matter if it’s on the feet or on the ground – of course everyone knows that I have a preference.”

As mentioned on Saturday, I’ve agreed to put my dignity where my mouth is and accept Ryan Harkness of Fightlinker‘s challenge to a UFC 84 pick-off. Whoever predicts “Ill Will” more accurately wins; the loser will have to do something unpleasant, of the winner’s choice.

Here’s the fun part: I need your help to determine the punishment that Ryan will endure in the very likely event that I win. Something practical perhaps, that helps promote CagePotato.com in the Great White North? Something that demonstrates the superiority of my beloved New York City to Mudville Montreal? The usual naked donkey riding? Shoot us your ideas in the comments section. Just remember, these guys have no shame, so you’ll have to be creative. If we use your suggestion, we’ll make it worth your while. All proceeds go to charity. (Just kidding!)

By the way, Ryan and I will be keeping score not just based on which fighter wins each matchup, but how and in what round those victories are achieved. So if God talks to you some time in the next couple weeks and mentions anything about UFC 84, let us know, m’kay?

UPDATE: Or, you could go here to toss in suggestions on what I would have to do in the event of a loss. Please be gentle.

(BG)

(Shinya Aoki, man of steel.)

While us Westerners were hitting the snooze button over and over again this morning, DREAM‘s second event was going down in Japan’s Saitama Super Arena. In a night full of surprises, the biggest one was how easily Shinya Aoki handled Gesias Calvancante. The “Master of Jumping Locks” played it true to his nickname, spending a large chunk of the first round hanging off of Calvancante’s back and working for a choke, and nailing a flying guard-pull in the second round. JZ landed shots where he could, but Aoki’s ground control and multiple submission attempts convinced the judges to give him the match unanimously. With the win, Aoki advances to the second round of DREAM’s lightweight tournament, which goes down May 11th. Now that he’s made it through Calvancante, he’s a strong favorite to go all the way.

The rest of DREAM.2 was devoted to the first round of their middleweight grand prix. Kazushi Sakuraba’s match with Kyokushin karate practitioner Andrews Nakahara (0-0 in MMA competition before the fight) was as lopsided as expected, with Sak schooling Nakahara on the ground en route to a neck crank submission. But there were two major upsets on the card, as crowd favorites Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa and Denis Kang were eliminated from the GP. Minowa put in a lethargic performance against Taiei Kin — who owned a 2-2 record coming into the tournament — and was mostly unsuccessful in his repeated takedown attempts, absorbing a ton of leg kicks and knees to the head in the process. During the times when Minowa did have Kin on the ground, he failed to inflict any damage, and was eventually handed a loss by the judges.

Denis Kang’s submission loss to Gegard Mousasi was just as disappointing. After an energetic striking exchange to open the match, Kang took Mousasi to the ground and worked for a kimura while dodging Mousasi’s rabbit-punches and knees to the head on the ground (both of which seemed to be quite legal at this event, for some reason). But Kang was eventually kicked off, and when he went in to throw a punch at the downed Mousasi he literally fell into a triangle choke; it was the kind of a loss that only an amateur would experience, and it would be hard to argue for Kang as a top-ten middleweight at this point.

Full results are after the jump. Come back later for videos from the event, and if you get HDNet, set your DVRs now: DREAM.2 will be broadcast this Saturday, May 3rd, at 10:30 p.m. ET.

We’ve called it “a Fight of the Year waiting to happen” — and luckily, it’s happening. Sources have confirmed that top UFC lightweight contenders Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian will face each other at UFC 87 (August 9th; Minneapolis, MN), with the winner all but guaranteed an immediate shot at the 155-pound belt.

Huerta is 16-0 with one no-contest in his last 17 fights (22-1-1 +1 NC overall), including six consecutive victories in the UFC; by UFC 87, he will have been inactive for eight months. Kenny Florian most recently dispatched Joe Lauzon at UFC Fight Night 13, and hasn’t suffered a defeat since his title fight against Sean Sherk in October 2006. As Florian told MMAWeekly:

“[Huerta is] a game opponent, and he’s never going to quit. It doesn’t matter how tired he gets, he’s gonna keep going, and those are the kind of guys that I want to fight. He’s on a roll, he’s very confident right now. And I like the kid. I know him personally. He’s a good kid, and we get along great. He has a bright future, regardless of what happens in the fight with me.”

See, when Florian talks trash, it’s so subtle that you barely notice it.

Huerta/Florian is such an outstanding matchup because it seems like both fighters’ career trajectories have been pushing them towards each other. It’s not a title fight, but it has all the importance of one, and will help to establish a clear ranking order in the UFC’s lightweight division. (For the same reasons, Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson is also one of those fights that needs to happen.) Let us know your early predictions in the comments section and in our new poll. For those of you who have bought into the “Roger Huerta is overhyped and hasn’t faced tough competition” line, here’s my rebuttal: Winning 16 straight fights is an amazing achievement no matter who you’ve fought, because 1) every opponent represents a different style challenge that may cause problems for you, even if they’re a lesser fighter on paper, and 2) everybody gets caught once in a while. An undefeated record or a monstrous win streak like Huerta’s shows that a fighter is well-rounded enough to handle whatever he encounters in the cage, and doesn’t make the minor errors in judgment that lead to eating an unexpected right hook.

I’m not saying he’ll win; I’m just sayin’.

(But does he love them?)

So you thought the war of words between Chuck Liddell and Kimbo Slice was over. You just assumed that after Liddell called Kimbo overrated, and then Kimbo replied that he had “nothing but these” (indicating his fists) for Liddell, that would be the end of it, didn’t you?

Well obviously, you haven’t been paying attention to the way things work in the world of MMA. The first rule of a nascent fighter feud? Never let someone else have the last word.

“The Iceman” knows how to play the game. That’s why he went on the unfortunately named “Rear Naked Radio” this weekend to clarify his earlier comments about Kimbo. And by clarify, we mean add fuel to the fire. From MMA Junkie:

“Before he talks about fighting me, he might want to think about beating somebody that has a winning record,” Liddell said. “He’s an internet sensation who beat up guys at Taco Bell. Come on. How hard is that to do?”

Oh. No. He. Didn’t.

Chuck Liddell obviously hasn’t been to a Taco Bell in Queens, because there are some pretty rough customers hanging around and waiting for their pregnant girlfriends to get off work. If you even suggest that she forgot your Baja Chalupa, she bursts into tears and then it’s out come the switchblades. You fight your way out of that one, you deserve some bragging rights.

But Liddell wasn’t done. He had some in-depth analysis of Kimbo’s recent opposition, most notably Bo Cantrell:

“That first fight they had on HDNet, he fought a guy that had been knocked out two times before in less than 30 seconds, and he tapped on his way down in [that] one. That was three fights that he lost in less than 30 seconds. How many guys do you know who’s done that?”

Truly, that is an impressive feat by Mr. Cantrell. Kimbo’s next opponent, James Thompson, is also coming off back-to-back first-round KO losses. At least his total ring time for those fights is a more respectable 2:34. Maybe a win over him will be enough to impress Liddell. Don’t count on it, though.

Ball’s in your court, Kimbo.

(James Irvin: Fighting his way off of the C-list.)

“He’s lost his last two fights now, against Franklin and Anderson Silva, so the UFC’s decision makes sense. No fighter can guarantee winning a fight but you can go into a bout in shape. If you can’t go the distance then you’re not preparing well enough and you’re not taking your job seriously. We work for the UFC and it’s our job to get off our a**es and train and be in shape. That’s what we get paid for and if we don’t do that then we’re not doing our job. That’s the way I look at it.”
— Michael Bisping on the recent sacking of Travis Lutter.

“I just decided to make light of the situation and be like, hey man, this is what I’m seeing. I’m seeing a running man. That just came to me out of nowhere. When there were ten seconds left I just said to myself, all right, I’m calling the technique the ‘rock-hammer.’ I don’t know if that name will stick or not.”
— Nate Quarry on the instant-classic ending of his fight with Kalib Starnes.

“I’m just so happy that he would even take the fight against me. I consider him an ‘A’ level fighter, and I consider myself a ‘C’ level fighter, maybe a ‘B’ level because I just beat Houston trying to claw my way up to the top. So for him to take a step down and fight me, I’m greatly appreciative of the guy, who is someone I look up to as one of those top tier fighters.”
— James Irvin on his UFC 85 opponent, Rashad Evans.

“Mentally I think BJ has some quit in him. I’ve seen it, I’ve seen it in the past. If you push him, he’ll quit.”
— Sean Sherk on his UFC 84 grudge match with BJ Penn.

“Now that the K1 thing is out of the way it’s all good baby: all MMA and MMA only. These guys (DREAM) want me to fight Aleksander (Emelianeko) in about three weeks time on May 11th! I was like no way because it’s too short a time with no training. I don’t want to risk fighting like that. But if they compensate me enough for taking that risk then it’s all good and I’ll fight. DREAM’s plan was to see how Fedor (Emelianeko) goes and when and if he wins the DREAM title, and then I will fight him…First time I fought him, my wrestling wasn’t great — actually it was pretty shit but I did alright with him. This time I will be ready.”
— Mark Hunt, who may eventually be battling the Emelianenko brothers in DREAM. Hunt was submitted by Fedor via armbar at PRIDE Shockwave on New Year’s Eve 2006.

MMA Mania reports that welterweight Nick “The Mad Monkey” Serra — Matt’s brother — will be competing on the undercard of EliteXC: Primetime (May 31st; Newark, NJ) against Matt Makowski, a 2-0 fighter who most recently submitted Joe Schilling at a ShoXC event in January. Serra has only competed professionally five times since his August 1999 debut at a “Vengeance at the Vanderbilt” event that also saw the pro debut of his brother, and has compiled a record of four wins (all by submission) and two losses (both by decision). Below are two of those wins: First, Serra’s 2003 fight with Rick McCoy where the Monkey took it to the ground early with a flying arm-triangle then did some Nate Diaz-style showboating en route to an eventual tapout; then, his most recent bout with Mike Varner last June at CFFC 5 – Two Worlds, One Cage.

A couple of weeks ago, we lamented the fact that Hong Man Choi’s mandatory army service would take him out of the fight game for three years. The good news is, he failed a physical and will be sent back home. According to the report (which is translated here):

Choi submitted medical records indicating that his pituitary adenoma may compress his optic nerve and cause visual problems. His condition was deemed problematic for basic training and was discharged. It is likely that he was determined to be unfit for the next three months.

Choi will likely get a re-examination in which case he will “re-start” his duties, get an exemption, or be sent home for yet another physical at a later date, depending on the results…

As of now, it is quite likely that Choi may get an exemption since he has a clear reason and has all the necessary documents. Also, it has been reported that his vision has been deteriorating since last year. In an interview with My Daily, Choi was quoted as saying “I couldn’t see the right hook when I fought Mighty Mo.”

Choi’s pituitary adenoma was revealed to the media in June of last year through the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) right before Dynamite! USA. The CSAC deemed Choi unfit to compete and refused to issue him a fighter’s license.

Hong Man Choi was quoted as saying “It has been a fun two days and everyone was nice to me. I’m sorry that this happened.”

Man, we thought stapling papers for three years in an Army office would be bad; this optic nerve thing might end HMC’s fight career for good. Besides the fact that he was rejected in California, K-1 may not allow him to continue to fight anywhere for their organization with his visual handicap now public knowledge. Thank God he has his rap career to fall back on. And hey, if Yao Ming ever needs a stunt double…

(Guess which one of these men works on the business side of the fight game. Go on, guess.)

MMA supermanager Monte Cox has caught his share of flack recently. First, there was the whole M-1 Global debacle, and then the creation of Adrenaline MMA, which relied upon Cox signing the fighters he managed to the company he was heading up. The phrase “conflict of interest” comes to mind, but I digress.

Now, in a strange twist, Cox is taking aim at rival MMA agent Ken Pavia. In a recent interview on MMA Rated Radio he told Ariel Helwani that Pavia shouldn’t attempt to try his hand at promoting his own organization since he “struggles to be a manager.”

Ouch. But then it got personal:

“I’m taller than him as is most everybody (laughs)… He’s never developed a fighter in his life. You know, it is what it is. I mean, we’re completely different. You have two kinds of people: He calls himself an agent, which is probably right. I’m a manager; I take guys in the beginning of their career and develop them.”

You can’t help but wonder what’s going on under the surface here. Has “The Pav” run afoul of Monte in some way? Cox elaborates:

“Anyone can watch a UFC and pick out a guy who does well and say ‘man I should manage that guy.’ Well, that’s nice but what about the guy who’s been managing and handling that guy for the four years before he got there? In my business, we call those agents ‘poachers.’”

And there you have it. Monte Cox (in his own roundabout way) calls Ken Pavia a fighter poacher. So much anger in this business. So little love.

Props: Five Ounces of Pain

(Harris [right] rocks Fabio Leopoldo during their IFL match last April.)

Gerald “Hurricane” Harris, who fought in the IFL (as a member of the Portland Wolfpack) and the Freestyle Cage Fighting organization before being chosen for The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest, has agreed to be a super-special CagePotato guest blogger for the rest of this season of TUF. Tune in every Thursday morning as the Team Quest fighter and Tulsa, Oklahoma native gives his reactions to each new episode (Wednesdays, 10 p.m., SpikeTV). If you haven’t been keeping up, Gerald recaps the first four episodes below. Enjoy…

***

Surprise (Episode #1)

I‘ll start by saying that I was one of the “smart” ones who thought I was flying to Vegas to move into the house. In the past, people have had this privilege and thrown it away for a girlfriend, small injury, or because they couldn’t make weight. This year Dana White had a solution for that. He described those past cast members as “pussies and poseurs” — and I don’t fit either one of those names.

In the first episode, 16 fighters entered the UFC building with high-fives and hugs, only to be met by another 16 competitors in the gym. It was so quiet you could hear a flea fart. At first I told myself, “look at those 16 alternates,” until Dana announced that the 32 men standing in the gym would fight each other to get into the house. It didn’t really affect most fighters until he said we had to make weight in 24 hours and fight in 48. Some of the fighters had gained a lot of weight since we arrived the day before. I was lucky enough to only be six pounds over, along with many others. Also, I wrestled all my life — so cutting weight has never been a problem. Losing would have been devastating, because I came to the show with $67 in the bank and I planned on being the next Ultimate Fighter!

The day of elimination fights started off with a bang. Mike Dolce hit Prince McClean so hard he dropped as if he was hit with a taser. I felt bad for McClean, but Dolce is a fellow Team Quest member so I was rooting for him. In other action, Cale Yarbrough battled with Clark in a scramble-filled bout that was going well until Clark proved that his weight cutting had an effect on him. Yarbrough punished the extremely fatigued Clark with haymakers and wild kicks until the stoppage. With one UFC fight already under his belt, Steve Byrnes was seen as a guaranteed cast member. But in a back and forth match, he was eventually stopped with an armbar by Amir Sadollah, who had never had a pro fight.