(Props: BloodyElbow)

So here’s a clip of Frank Shamrock giving some predictions for EliteXC’s October 4th event. What caught my attention was the fact that EliteXC has quietly announced a title for the show, which they’ve included in the video. It’s called “Heat,” and even though it’s just three weeks away, this is the first time I’ve seen it. Pretty lazy, if you ask me. I’m sure we could come up with some more fitting titles. I’ll start…

“The Old Can and the G”
“Miami Pound Machine”
“$kala’s Last Stand”
“Paycheck”
“Roadkill”
“Sideshow”
“Maybe That Chick From American Gladiators Will Show Her Tits, You Never Know”

Any other suggestions?

Randy Couture on TAGG Radio, via MMA Junkie:

“In kind of coming up with some strategies with my attorneys to open some dialogue with the UFC, I sent (UFC President) Dana (White) a nice text,” Couture explained. “I told him I was on [an MMA forum], and there were some guys that were bagging on him — no surprise there. They were saying that he likes to eat [expletive] sandwiches.

“I told [Dana] that I stuck up for him, and that there was no way that could be true because he doesn’t even like bread.

“It’s true. I sent him that text, and he texted me right back — laughing his ass off — saying, ‘I’d love to talk to you. We can enjoy some [expletive] sandwiches together.’ That started the whole thing.”

Later in the show, Couture stated that he hoped Fedor Emelianenko would be the second in his current three-fight deal with the UFC, then got all IFL on our ass, explaining that the UFC’s fighters should have health coverage like the employees of any other corporation:

“If we’re talking about buying some cold medicine, go buy some damn cold medicine. But if you actually have some medical expenses that would normally be covered by some kind of medical insurance that we don’t have, then maybe the UFC in their infinite wisdom could cover some of these things. And they’re considering some of those things seriously. They are at least willing to listen to some of the issues that we have as fighters.”

(…and the home…of the…brave.)

A few years ago I went to a Sportfight event in Portland, Oregon where Ed Herman beat Glover Texeira via decision to claim the Sportfight middleweight title. Afterwards he came down the aisles shaking hands and he looked more exhausted than any human being I have ever seen, which is also how he looked from about mid-way through the second round on. He still won, though, and it was a great fight.

Afterwards, Chris Leben told me that Herman’s philosophy on cardio at the time was something along the lines of ‘I get tired when I do a lot of cardio and don’t party, and I get tired when I don’t do a lot of cardio and do party. I’m just going to have to get used to getting tired.’

I only bring it up now because Herman is one of those fighters who is really awesome when viewed through the correct lens. That lens? A tough bastard who sometimes does things that aren’t so smart, for reasons that aren’t so smart, but he knows it and has a ‘what can you do?’ type of attitude about it. I realize that sounds a little weird, but I think these quotes from a recent article on UFC.com sum it up nicely.

On fighting Alan Belcher:

“I think I’m better in the clinch.” Herman says. “I think my Greco style and dirty boxing is going to beat his little fancy pants Muay Thai stuff. …I think he’s a purple belt in Jiu-Jitsu, but all that changes with a couple of elbows.”

On what went wrong against Demian Maia:

“Basically, my game plan in that Maia fight was to try to keep it standing and box him or beat him up in the clinch. I knew he was going to try to take it to the ground, it was no secret. My game plan was to break off when he pulled guard and haul him back up. We practiced that for months. But for some reason when I got into the fight, I kind of went on auto-pilot and I didn’t use my brain and I sat down there in his guard.

(Props: MMA Payout)

Prepare yourselves, Potato Nation. What you are about to see in the above video from MyFox New York is not like anything you’ve ever seen. Unless you’ve seen MMA before. In that case, yeah, it’s pretty much the same thing you’ve seen before. Still, it shocks the hell out of this Fox affiliate. They found it so deplorably violent they went ahead and added bullwhip sound effects to it. That should solve it. Oh, and did they mention that one guy works for the MTA? His eye is swollen. Now you know why the G train is never running.

Funny thing is, I’ve actually attended this underground fight series before. It was at a gym in Queens (represent!), and aside from being amateurish (which is what you expect from amateur fighters), it was a pretty normal night of MMA fights.

Now, we could go back and forth about whether this kind of unlicensed, unsanctioned event is keeping MMA illegal in New York, or whether keeping it unlicensed and unsanctioned is only making inevitable events like these needlessly dangerous, but I’d rather not have that discussion. Instead I’d rather discuss news outlets that want an excuse to show violence, while still managing to look down their collective noses at a sensationalized, edited, voiced-over version of the sport of MMA.

What’s next, Fox? Reporting about how bad porn is while showing porn?

(Kongo beats down Cro Cop at UFC 75. Photo courtesy of Graciemag.com.)

The UK’s Wolfslair Academy has revealed to Eurosport-Yahoo! that they’ve taken over the management and training of UFC heavyweight Cheick Kongo. Kongo will follow his friend and training partner Quinton Jackson across the pond; both men had previously trained with Juanito Ibarra, who may or may not have been skimming money from Rampage. According to Wolfslair co-owner Anthony McGann:

“[Cheick] was having some problems negotiating his new contract with the UFC and was looking for somewhere to train so it was an easy decision for him to join his mates…He has been training with Quinton for his last couple of fights, and we know that has not been a happy camp. We think he will be a happier fighter here; he is only a couple of hours from his home in Paris and we will be taking all the other distractions like sponsorship out of his hands…Cheick excels when he fights strikers so if he is going to step up there and keep improving, we know we need to improve his ground game. We are very pro-UFC and they want him to work on his ground game; we hope we can get a striker for his next fight in the meantime.”

With four UFC regulars on the team — including Michael Bisping and Paul Kelly, who will both be competing at UFC 89 next month — Wolfslair is on its way to becoming the most prominent MMA camp outside of the U.S. Not that McGann would be satisfied with that:

“We want to show the rest of the world that we are up there with the USA in terms of the quality of our gyms and that in terms of the UFC, we are up there with the top two or three teams in the world.”

Kongo (12-4) holds a 5-2 record in the UFC, with three of those wins by first-round KO/TKO. Though he was buzzed about as the next opponent for Brock Lesnar until Randy Couture returned to the UFC, his next fight date and opponent are currently undetermined.

(Nah, bro…you.)

EliteXC hosted a media conference call this afternoon, where a fired-up Ken Shamrock and a comparatively laid-back Kimbo Slice traded insults to hype their headlining fight at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida, on October 4th. After Jeremy Lappen ran down the fight card, Shamrock kicked things off by apologizing for his recent performances. “I have my reasons for the losses, but they’re just excuses,” he said. “But on October 4th I will shut everyone up and I will make amends for those fights by putting Kimbo’s lights out…[people ask] can I get in the ring, should I be in the ring, do I deserve to be in the ring, and I guarantee you I will answer that question and I will put a period at the end of it.”

Though he expressed respect for Shamrock and his accomplishments, Slice seemed confident about his chances. “[Ken's] gonna stay on his streak, and I’m gonna stay on mine,” Slice said. When asked what his gameplan was, Slice sardonically added: “Being a great grappler like myself, against a striker like Ken, I’m gonna break his leg.”

Though things started out relatively civil, Shamrock’s blood was boiled by an early question from a reporter, and he stayed mad for the remainder. When he was asked if he thought he was being used as a stepping stone for Slice, Shamrock shouted “I am! That’s absolutely what this is, and I’m absolutely taking this as an insult to me! And i’m going to smash it back in their face.”

An uncomfortable Lappen tried to do damage control by saying “we definitely don’t look at it that way,” while Jared Shaw started running down Shamrock’s career accomplishments, and clarified that the guys who beat Shamrock during his last 10 fights were all legends. [Ed. note: Which reminds me, how long do we have to wait until Buzz Berry is inducted into the MMA Hall of Fame?] “The press wants to paint a picture that Ken is washed up and he’s being served up,” Shaw said. “But Ken doesn’t believe that, and we don’t believe that.”

Of course there was some great back-and-forth between the headliners. When asked about the likelihood of him taking the fight to the ground, Shamrock said “I’m gonna go out there, I’m gonna be too fast for him — I hit hard — and he’s going to eat a few of my punches, some leg kicks, a couple push kicks. He’s gonna get tired. And then I don’t even have to take the guy down, he’s gonna fall down.”

(Props: MMA Scraps)

A jovial Ken Shamrock showed up on “Inside MMA” to discuss his upcoming fight with Kimbo Slice. I’m not sure exactly what’s going on around the 0:53 mark where Ken affects a silly voice in order to say “going to the leg-lock,” but, as Shamrock has shown in the past, he likes the occasional silly voice for no good reason. It’s somewhat reassuring to hear him say that he isn’t comfortable trading punches with Kimbo, until he says he still thinks he can “hit him five times and make him miss.” Don’t do it, Ken. Seriously. Just get it to the ground and hope for the best.

(Is Golden Boy ready to get in the game?)

The trouble with announcing that you’re about to make a big announcement is that people start chipping away at it, trying to spoil your surprise. It’s been less than twenty-four hours since Affliction “rescheduled” its October 11 event, and the rumors are flying. COO Michael Cohen told NBC Sports that he expected Fedor Emelianenko to be added to the event, now back at the Honda Center in January, but who would he face?

Reached for comment earlier today, Cohen told me he wasn’t sure yet whether Fedor would face “Andrei Arlovski or someone else.” When asked where that left Josh Barnett, he replied, “or Josh Barnett.”

In other words, Fedor will fight the always-formidable ‘TBA’ for Affliction in January, but that’s obviously not the big announcement. Rumor has it that it more likely involves a partnership of some sort with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. You may recall that Golden Boy was said to be on board back in the beginning, but supposedly dropped out after the announcement was made prematurely before issues of control were completely ironed out.

Affliction isn’t making that mistake again. When asked about a potential Golden Boy partnership or co-promotion, Cohen said he could not “confirm or deny” those rumors. He offered the same response when asked whether this might open the door for them to land a deal with HBO, although HBO seems to be rejecting that notion outright, according to Director of Media Relations, Kevin Flaherty:

“HBO is not in discussions with any MMA organization presently. Our sports programming plate is full.”

For now Golden Boy seems like the frontrunner for this big announcement, but what will that mean for Affliction? A possible MMA/boxing venture, or just some promotional and financial aid? Affliction is tight-lipped for the moment, not wanting to ruin the surprise, but Cohen assured us, ““When we make the announcement the reasons for this will all be self-evident.”

MMA fans have heard that one before, as Cohen acknowledged.

“The difference is,” he said, “we’re not just announcing a toy line.”

In this interview done after Rashad Evans’s knockout of Chuck Liddell at UFC 88, trainer/strategist Greg Jackson discusses what he told Evans between rounds 1 and 2, Mike Winklejohn and Kieth Jardine’s contributions to the gameplan, and Nate Marquardt’s victory over Martin Kampmann. Props to Sherdog via Fans of Team Jackson’s.

Courtesy of MMAMania and MAR Clothing, here’s a video of Josh Koscheck interviewing Diego Sanchez and Chris Leben in a car while in Las Vegas for the taping of the Ultimate Fighter 1 reunion — which will air in segments during Saturday’s TUF 1 marathon on SpikeTV, beginning at 9 a.m. ET. The guys discuss their upcoming fights, a possible rubber match between Diego and Josh, Thiago Alves’s mysterious growth spurt, and how Chris Leben wants a rematch with Anderson Silva more than anything.

After the jump: Must-see interview footage of Evan Tanner explaining why he fights and his humanist worldview, from Potent: The Movie, via Bloody Elbow.

(Ooh-rah! Proud Marine Luigi Fioravanti stomps the crap out of bark-eating hippie Luke Cummo. Photo courtesy of FightwireImages.)

MMA Mania is reporting that the UFC will hold a free SpikeTV event for the troops at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on December 10th. The event will be free for military personnel to attend and will likely feature former members of the armed services who are now fighters. It will be the first time the UFC has been in North Carolina since UFC 5 (Charlotte, 4/7/95), and just the second UFC event to be held on a military base (after UFC Fight Night 7 in December ’06).

The addition of this Fight Night card means that the UFC will be holding three events in December — the Ultimate Fighter 8 finale will take place just three days later on December 13th, and UFC 92 will go down two weeks after that on December 27th. Besides a WEC event rumored for 12/3, no other major MMA promotions have announced events for December yet, so the holiday season could be completely Zuffa-dominated.

(Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

In an attempt to make Affliction’s decision to, let’s just say not go through with their planned October 11 event in Las Vegas, company VP Tom Atencio is getting specific about the semantics involved. You see, they aren’t canceling their event. Everyone knows that’s a bad sign for an MMA company. And they aren’t postponing it, either. Again, another bad sign. No, it’s nothing like that.

Atencio explains it all to MMA Weekly:

“We’re not canceling it, we’re not postponing it, we’re rescheduling it completely,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to do it where we wanted to do it, it’s a positive.”

[...]

“It was a business decision. We came out strong, and we want to continue with that momentum and continue strong. We don’t want to come out and be weak and have to give tickets away. We want to continue to be a force in this industry.”

[...]

“From a business standpoint, we don’t want to lose money,” he said. “We want to be here long term. It’s a wise choice. This is definitely a positive.”

So they scheduled an event, paid for a Nascar sponsorship and a Times Square billboard touting the date, then couldn’t sell any tickets. So what did they do? They scheduled it again, for a different time and place. They re-scheduled it. Completely different than postponing or canceling.

Atencio also said there would be an announcement about the company’s future during the Marquez-Casamayor boxing match this Saturday, while Affliction COO Michael Cohen has been more vague, promising an announcement “within two weeks” and saying a press conference would take place at Trump Towers in New York City.

Could this big announcement have something to do with a boxing co-promotion? Or absolutely nothing to do with boxing? Will we continue to play this guessing game until someone comes up with some answers? Where’s Waldo!? Who’s on first?!? Gaaah!

(“I just saved a bunch of money on my hepatitis test.”)

In a new interview with MMA Weekly, Tito Ortiz reveals that he’s just about done negotiating his next fight contract:

“Most likely I’m not going with the UFC, that’s about 99% sure that that’s not happening. I’ve got to be thankful for Lorenzo (Fertitta), what he gave me to this point, but it’s too bad that they have a president the way he is, just hot headed the way he is, takes everything personal and I wash my hands clean…

I’m going to move on and I’m going to try another company out, I’m going to see how it goes. By the end of this month there will be a big news break, where Tito Ortiz is going and what I did for a contract.”

If it’s not the UFC, it has to be EliteXC or Affliction, right? Well, another report on MMA Rated has us thinking that Ortiz could be leaning towards the t-shirt company. As Affliction COO Michael D. Cohen told Ariel Helwani:

At this present moment, I can not give the reason [for the event cancelation] but what I can tell you is that there is going to be a public announcement made and this announcement is truly going to change the world of mixed martial arts. Unlike other similar statements made, the press conference that will be had in the near future will have the affect as I described it. [Ed. note: LOL!]

And when can we expect this earth-shattering announcement?

Within two weeks. We are truly hoping that it will be within one week, but the reality is two weeks. MMA fans all around the world will understand the reason for the postponement of the event. And something I want to make clear…The event has not been cancelled, it’s postponed, and the reasons will become very apparent to all.

Call me a cynic, but I’m going to start preparing my FAIL photos. Cohen also discusses “Day of Reckoning”‘s slow ticket sales and the UFC’s Las Vegas meddling, and while he can try to re-direct our attention all he wants with this talk of a game-changing announcement, a postponed show isn’t good news, no matter how he spins it. Although Fedor vs. Tito is certainly a freak show worth waiting for…

Update: Fowlkes just spoke with Cohen and asked him if Affliction’s announcement had anything to do with Tito’s announcement. His response: “Absolutely not.”

Aw hell naw. The Nevada State Athletic Commission has confirmed to Sherdog that Affliction’s second MMA event — which was scheduled to go down October 11th at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas — has been postponed to 2009:

Affliction contacted Kizer on Wednesday morning to inform him that the event would be moved to a January date at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

We already knew that the UFC was (allegedly) making things very unpleasant for Affliction in Las Vegas, and it looks like the pressure might have been too much. Unfortunately, they now take a bath on the money they shelled out on advertising for the event — which didn’t appear to be much, granted, although billboards in Times Square aren’t cheap. More importantly, their momentum is totally dead at this point. Six months between events is an eternity if you’re trying to build an MMA organization. I’d say the silver lining to this poop-cloud is that at least Fedor Emelianenko will be healthy enough to compete by January — unless of course he breaks his hand again during his annual New Year’s Eve freak show fight in Japan. More details to come…

Update: MMA Rated is floating the rumor that as few as 700 tickets had been sold for “Day of Affliction.” For ring events, the Thomas & Mack Center can hold 19,522 spectators.

(Oh, Chuck! Not in the cake, man!)

Over at the UG some users have straight-up crazy Photoshop skillz, kid. Fortunately, they’ve put them to good use in light of the Rashad Evans-Chuck Liddell fight at UFC 88. Some of them are sloppy, some are downright offensive, and others are surprisingly well-done and imaginative. The one you see above, done by SkeetersMMA, is really on a whole other level. Work like this deserves recognition. Consider this a tip of the old CP cap, Skeeters.

A few honorable mentions are after the jump.

(“Semtex” makes sure photographers get a shot of his good fist.)

As you may have already forgotten, Elite XC’s next show on CBS is now less than a month away. They don’t seem too concerned with stuff like advertising or hyping it in the press, and are apparently relying on the Kimbo Slice-Ken Shamrock buzz to carry them through without much promotion. Kind of a ‘If you build a squash match, they will come’ type of attitude.

But thank God for Paul Daley. The now-I’m-retired-now-I’m-not UK fighter seems to be the only one really putting some effort into selling this thing. When discussing his bout with Elite XC welterweight champ Jake Shields, “Semtex” was, shall we say, forthcoming with his opinions:

He won’t remember much…just waking up I guess. I’m gonna be real mean in this fight, fuck Jake Shields, you’re going to see. I am stronger, I hit harder, I take punishment and he will not take me down, or hold me there for long if I make a mistake. This is gonna be a shock to those Jake Shields nut huggers. Once I am in that top ten, I’m coming after everyone above me….

I’m so pumped for the fight that I feel something is gonna go wrong, like he is gonna pull out or something…scared…I would if I was him. He don’t know what’s coming.

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(Shannon Gugerty finishes fights. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

— Without an opponent due to Thiago Silva’s recent back injury, Lyoto Machida has been officially removed from UFC 89′s lineup; an undercard bout between Shane Carwin and Neil Wain will now be bumped up to the pay-per-view broadcast. As one rumor goes, Machida could potentially face Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in November or December.

— Patrick Cote is tired of the American media disrespecting him by discussing who Anderson Silva should face after the Spider inevitably kicks the crap out of the Canadian challenger at UFC 90. You might not believe this, but Cote said he’s “ready to shock the world.” Wow…could we have been wrong about this fight all along?

— Melvin Guillard has been forced to drop out of his UFC 90 bout with Spencer Fisher for undisclosed reasons. Replacing him will be Shannon Gugerty (11-2), the City Boxing product who made his UFC debut at “Silva vs. Irvin” in July with a first-round choke-out of Dale Hartt.

— The UFC may have found its next light-heavyweight gatekeeper, reportedly signing Italian UWC/Cage Rage vet Ivan Serati (10-2) to a multi-fight deal; he’s expected to make his first Octagon appearance before the end of the year. Serati has won his last four matches, and started his career with five straight victories by stoppage (all in under a minute) before losing to Vitor Belfort via TKO at a Cage Rage event in April ’07.

— UFC.com just published a feature about Evan Tanner‘s greatest UFC moments. Read and reflect.

(Props: bigraydaddy)

Most Big John fans know that the veteran UFC ref was a former LAPD officer; he joined the force in 1985, and has served as a tactical self-defense instructor since 1993. But in April/May 1992 — two years before he made his Octagon debut at UFC 2 — McCarthy was part of the police effort to control the chaos that struck Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict. Catch a glimpse of his pre-”Let’s Get It On!” life in the above video, at the 0:00-0:01 and 0:49-0:51 marks. Rug shampooers FTW.

Friends and associates of deceased UFC fighter Evan Tanner have set up a tribute site at EvanTanner.net where fans can post comments and share stories. His manager, John Hayner, encourages people who want to do something in remembrance of him to do so “by doing something unexpectedly nice for someone who is in need.”

Over at Fightlinker they’ve posted an account of a time when Tanner himself did just that. They also spent the day reposting all their old Tanner stories, an exercise meant to highlight the good and the bad about him rather than whitewashing his troubles and his missteps. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s worth a read.

Judging by the outpouring of sadness and support on the tribute site and in our comments section today, it’s safe to say that Tanner made a lasting impact on a lot of people, in no small part because of his vulnerability and generosity, even at his lowest points.

(Posing for a quick photo before heading into surgery.)

In a new interview with Tatame, WEC middleweight champ Paulo Filho swears that he’s over his depression and better than ever heading into a rematch with Chael Sonnen. As you might recall, Filho struggled with the blues and the drugs a while back before pulling out of a Sonnen rematch and checking himself into rehab. To hear him tell it, the treatment took, but he’s none too happy with Sonnen running his mouth to the press, even suggesting that the fight would never actually happen:

American people has big mouths… Sonnen should have said it to me, and not put this things in media, I think he doesn’t wanna fight me again, lose another arm…

All right, Paulo, let’s get something straight. I don’t appreciate you disparaging a whole nation of people based solely on Chael Sonnen. That’s like us saying the Brazilian people have trouble with drugs and depression. When in fact, they are actually a very jovial people and their drug use is for the most part purely recreational. See? So it wouldn’t be fair.

That said, it was a pretty sweet burn about him losing another arm. And I guess we do have big mouths. Then again, aren’t you the same guy who, later in the same interview, said this about Anderson Silva’s upcoming fight with Patrick Cote:

Anderson will win, and I know it’ll be easy and fast. Cote isn’t fight for Anderson Silva, he’s a level above.

Not saying I disagree, but that sounds like something a guy with a big mouth might say. Once more, it’s those nice Canadians who end up getting treated the worst.

(Image courtesy of drunkatdnc.blogspot.com via “overEZ” on the UG. Click for larger version.)

Noted anarchist and former UFC fighter Jeff Monson stares down several members of the St. Paul riot police during the Republican National Convention. As the story goes, Monson and others were trying to block Republican delegates from entering the convention; he was detained but not arrested. Now if someone could explain why he has a tattoo of Bubbles on his back, that would be very helpful…

(Props to “Justinmacd” on the UG.)

When Rashad Evans was shown twisting his nipples directly before his UFC 88 fight with Chuck Liddell, we wondered if the Greg Jackson camp knew something we didn’t; after all, Evans’s teammate Georges St. Pierre did the same thing before his title defense against Jon Fitch last month. Turns out it was just a simple goof on GSP. As Evans explained to TAGG Radio:

“Georges St. Pierre was the first do it, and it’s just sort of an inside joke…Georges said it was supposed to be good luck or something, so I said, ‘Cool, alright,’” Evans said, laughing.

Good luck, huh? Never heard that one before. Can’t wait to try it out at the roulette table.

Evans also talked about the Bill Gates mugshot t-shirt that he wore during his cage-entrance, which bore no apparent sponsors, and which some assumed was viral marketing on the part of Microsoft. If Gates paid Evans to wear it, Sugar wasn’t letting on:

“[Gates] was arrested in Albuquerque, N.M. He started off Microsoft in the basement of the Bank One Building. That’s right next to the (Team Jackson) gym.”

That’s the only association right now, but the team is hopeful Gates could become more involved with Team Jackson someday.

“Maybe one day he’ll be part of my crew,” Evans joked.

Meanwhile, in an interview with MMA Weekly, Evans credited another Jackson teammate, Keith Jardine, for helping him with his strategy for the Chuck fight:

“Keith said ‘you’re gonna get his timing, and there’s a point when you’re going to see em’ coming,’” Evans said. “‘When you see it coming, get off first — don’t sit there and wait.’ And that’s what I did. As soon as he had me against the fence, you can always tell when he’s coming, so as soon as I see him make that face, I just tried to bust off first.”

(Friendship. It’s a bitch.)

Matt Hamill may not have fought his greatest fight against Rich Franklin at UFC 88, but he went two rounds and change before succumbing to some brutal body kicks. That’s not the outcome you want if you’re Hamill, but there’s no shame in that, right? Not so, says Hamill’s trainer, Duff Holmes (if in fact that is his real name). He blasted Hamill’s performance in an interview with Fightline.com, suggesting that Hamill didn’t have his mind right going into the fight and questioning his “fighting spirit,” among other things:

“I practically begged Matt to take Rich down,” said a clearly frustrated Holmes. “I was screaming at him to stop fighting Rich’s fight and fight his fight. I can’t explain it. He just had this blank look on his face. I don’t know where he was, but the Matt Hamill that I know and trained for the past 11 weeks was not in that octagon on Saturday.”

[...]

“Reports that Matt wasn’t able to take Rich down are completely false. Matt didn’t shoot once the whole fight. He didn’t try. Matt Hamill is one of the most physically gifted athletes in the UFC. He has double leg takedown that’s like he’s shot out of a cannon. The guy is an animal; unfortunately that’s not the Matt Hamill that showed up on Saturday. He didn’t work the game plan.”

[...]

“I can’t explain it,” said Holmes. “The only person that knows why he didn’t come out to fight is him. I told him after the fight that his performance was uncharacteristic and that he really needed to do some soul searching to see if this is really what he wants to do. He had absolutely no fighting spirit, no killer instinct. He looked like a shell of himself and was just out there to get through it and that is very disconcerting.”

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Driving Force Sports, owned by Evan Tanner’s manager, John Hayner, has issued this statement on Tanner’s death:

San Clemente, CA—September 8, 2008—The death of UFC fighter Evan Tanner, of Oceanside, California, has left the Driving Force Sports family heartbroken tonight.

News that the body of a man found in the desert of the Palo Verde Valley is that of Evan rippled through the fight community late Monday afternoon.

Lt. George Moreno of the Imperial County Sheriff’s Department has reported that Evan set out treasure hunting on Wednesday, September 3rd, asking friends to call for help if he didn’t return right away. Lt. Moreno says friends called the Sheriff’s Office on Friday, and search and rescue teams looked for him throughout the weekend in temperatures up to 114 degrees. Lt. Moreno says the U.S. Marines used a helicopter to search by air this morning, finally spotting a body two miles from the campground where Evan’s belongings were found earlier. While a coroner has yet to confirm the body is Evan’s, the owner at the management agency Driving Force Sports in San Clemente says people close to Evan visually identified his body at the scene.

“Evan was a dear friend to us and an important part of the DFS family,” says Driving Force Sports owner John Hayner. “He was so much more than a fighter. He was an individual we appreciated and cared a lot about. He marched to a drum only he could hear, and he was happy with that—so were we and so were his fans. He worked so hard to get fans more involved in the industry and be a part of his team. He was the kind of guy who kept on trying every day to improve…not just in fighting but in his life as a whole.”

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(We know how you feel. Image courtesy of HolyTaco; click for larger image.)

By now, most of you are aware that leaving comments on this site is a royal fucking pain in the ass to the tenth power. There isn’t a day that goes by where we don’t get e-mails from readers complaining about the “You’re posting comments too fast” error message, and we just wanted to let you know that yes, we are aware of the problem. In fact, it should be fixed by this weekend. Chalk it up to our tremendous growth clashing with the shitty Wordpress template that we launched on. As Marlo Stanfield would say, “it’s one of them good problems.” Anyway, once everything is working properly, we’ll let you know, and we hope that those of you who gave up trying to leave comments will re-emerge from the shadows of lurkery. Any blog lives and dies by its community of readers, the two-way exchange of information, etc., and you’re all very important to us. Thanks so much for your patience.

Speaking of our community of readers, we’re happy to announce that something else on our site which was previously plagued with bugs — our forums section — is now fully operational again. In the month-and-a-half or so when this thing was actually working, it was a great place to discuss news stories after they dropped off the front page, trade outlandish rumors, and post pics of Marisa Miller. Unless you’re already committed to being a retarded Sherdogger (boooooo!), please register and help us build the coolest MMA forum on the web.

Oh, and one more thing: Though it’s never been broken, our Wiki section is just not very well-traveled. So whenever you’re bored, please search for your favorite fighter’s page and add some info/photos/links, or correct any inaccuracies. We’re currently in the process of building that up as well, and one day we hope to make it the most complete and entertaining collection of fighter bios on any MMA site.

Thanks again for all your support…

— BG

(Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

Saturday’s UFC 88 card took in $2.6 million in ticket revenue, making it the second-highest-grossing event ever held at Atlanta’s Philips Arena, next to a Barbara Streisand concert in 2006. The fighters at “Breakthrough” pulled in $1,510,000 in disclosed payouts, with a third of that going to knockout recipient Chuck Liddell. The numbers are below. Unless otherwise noted, each winning fighter’s salary represents a doubling of his base pay.

Chuck Liddell: $500,000
Dan Henderson: $250,000 (win bonus was $150,000)
Rashad Evans: $180,000 (including $60,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
Jason MacDonald: $104,000 (including $60,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
Rich Franklin: $100,000
Kurt Pellegrino: $84,000 (including $60,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Thiago Tavares: $73,000 (including $60,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Nate Marquardt: $56,000
Dong Hyun Kim: $46,000
Ryo Chonan: $30,000
Jason Lambert: $17,000
Tim Boetsch: $16,000
Martin Kampmann: $15,000
Matt Hamill: $10,000
Roan Carneiro: $9,000
Matt Brown: $8,000
Rousimar Palhares: $7,000
Michael Patt: $5,000

Underpaid: Not that the dude’s going broke, but it’s surprising that Rich Franklin’s base salary is only $50,000; Rashad Evans makes more than he does (which makes sense now, I suppose). It’s also too bad that someone as talented as Rousimar Palhares couldn’t negotiate better terms when he joined the UFC.

Overpaid: I’d let Evans knock me the eff out for half of what Chuck got for his little two-round appearance. Seriously. Get in touch with my people, Rashad.

Former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner has been found dead in the Palo Verde mountain area of the southern California desert. The news was confirmed with Tanner’s manager, John Hayner, who said he learned just an hour ago that the body found was indeed Tanner. He was thirty-seven years old.

“He was in a real positive state of mind, he wasn’t having any drinking problems or any of those types of problems. He was really feeling good about his life,” Hayner told CagePotato.com.

Hayner said that Tanner had gone into the desert on a motorcycle expedition and had run out of gas. Tanner was attempting to walk out of the desert, Hayner said, but apparently didn’t realize how far away from civilization he was and died of exposure in the triple-digit heat. Tanner’s empty campsite was spotted Sunday, and an aerial search located his body earlier this afternoon.

A post written by Tanner on his Spike TV blog told of his planning for the trip, and emphasized his desire to bring only essentials in his escape to the solitude of the desert:

I’ve been gathering my gear for this adventure for over a month, not a long time by most standards, but far too long for my impatient nature. Being a minimalist by nature, wanting to carry only the essentials, and being extremely particular, it has been a little difficult to find just the right equipment. I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life. I’ve been doing a great deal of research and study. I want to know all I can about where I’m going, and I want to make sure I have the best equipment.

Hayner told of a man who “marched to a beat only he could hear,” but maintained a positive outlook on life.

“Here was a famous UFC fighter who didn’t have enough food to eat at times. I’d call him just to make sure he had food in his fridge, but he never let it get him down. Starting over was kind of a theme in his life. He hardly ever lived in the same place more than six months,” Hayner said. “He moved out to Vegas and then found it too shallow for him, so he moved out to Oceanside and had a great place, he was learning to surf, and he was really enjoying his day-to-day life.”

(Times Square, meet “The Pitbull” and “The Baby-Faced Assassin.”)

The dispute between the UFC and Randy Couture may be over, but the one between the UFC and Affliction still rages on. After telling reporters that he would be “fucking horrified” to see Affliction still in business in 2009, Dana White may be trying to speed their demise as Affliction heads to Las Vegas for its October 11 event. According to VP Tom Atencio, Affliction is being hindered by the UFC in their Sin City efforts:

“They’ve been messing with me every step of the way,” Atencio said. “There have been issues that I’ve been dealing with. So I can’t say it’s them, but there’s been things we’ve been dealing with that have never happened before, so I guess that’s why.”

Atencio didn’t specifically list how the UFC was messing with him, but when the IFL attempted to break into the Vegas market, they faced radio stations that wouldn’t air their ads and marketing groups who refused to work with them. The rumor was that the UFC had threatened any ad networks or radio stations who cooperated with their competition, suggesting that they’d lose out on much greater business in the future from the UFC.

Affliction could be facing some of those same problems, or worse, as they try to drum up interest in their live event. Ticket sales were a major boon for their first show, but if they can’t get that same level of fan support for this effort they’ll be forced to rely on pay-per-view revenue, which could very well be weaker than their first show due to the lack of Fedor Emelianenko‘s star power. That may be why they’re shelling out the dough for a Times Square billboard, hoping that PPV buys will save them even if no one shows up to the live event.

(Props: Steve Cofield)

(‘Heyyyyyy.’)

Now that he’s finally injury-free and ready to fight, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is setting his sights high for his return to the Octagon. Rua told Fighters Only that he’d like to be the first to beat Rashad Evans following his impressive knockout of Chuck Liddell over the weekend:

“Rashad fought the perfect fight, he obviously studied Chuck and worked hard on his game plan,” he said. “He may be undefeated but everyone is there to be beaten and I would like to be the first one to do it.”

Of course if he can’t get that fight, he’ll take Rich Franklin, who’s also coming off a win. Apparently “Shogun” is not deterred by the fact that he’s coming back from a long injury layoff, or that his last time out didn’t go so well. Maybe it might be a better idea to ease back into it. I hear Matt Hamill’s schedule is pretty open.

- In other Brazilian fighter news, UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva told Tatame that there is absolutely no chance of him facing WEC middleweight champ Paulo Filho even after the heavier weight classes are absorbed into the UFC. Silva called Filho “the best middleweight,” saying “there’s nobody to beat him.”

It probably helps that they’re buds:

“I would never fight with Paulão. We almost train together, we’re always helping each other and (Josuel) Distak is our coach. There’s no chance to happen. People can complain, scream, whatever, but it won’t happen.”

You heard the man. You might as well stop your constant complaining and screaming for Silva-Filho, because it ain’t happening. Just let it go and move on with your life. Somehow.

(Mike Brown better be preparing for Tropical Storm Faber.)

WEC 36 — which was scheduled to go down this Wednesday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida — has been rescheduled to November 5th due to safety concerns related to Hurricane Ike. From an official statement released by the WEC on Saturday:

“Due to the potential of a major hurricane hitting the South Florida area on Wednesday we were compelled to postpone the event,” said Vice President of Operations and Production Peter Dropick. “For the safety of our fans, the fighters and our staff we felt it was in the best interest to make this decision.”

Hurricane Ike is currently a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 120 MPH and is moving west/southwest toward South Florida according to the National Hurricane Center’s latest advisory. The storm is on track to have impact on the Florida Keys and South Florida on Tuesday (9/9) into Wednesday (9/10).

“With Hurricane Ike approaching our area we have concern for the fans, fighters, our employees and the South Florida community in general,” said Bernie Dillon, Sr. Vice President of Entertainment for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. “We felt like it would be prudent and in everyone’s best interest to postpone the event. We certainly don’t want to cause any travelers or employees to get stranded here should we have a major storm.”

Unfortunately, the WEC may have jumped the gun a bit, as it now looks like Ike will miss Florida entirely, and make landfall somewhere between Alabama and Texas. Tickets purchased for the September 10th date remain valid and will be honored on 11/5; refunds can be obtained at the point of purchase. After the jump is the card you won’t be seeing on Wednesday…

While Fowlkes was dutifully liveblogging UFC 88, I was at New York’s 40/40 Club for a viewing party hosted by Matt Serra and his training buddies George Sotiropoulos and Pete “Drago” Sell. Between tense games of eight-ball, the Serra-Longo crew hung out with journalists and answered questions. At one point, I got my Canon PowerShot up in the Terror’s face and asked him about his health and his upcoming match with Matt Hughes; the video is above.

Major respect to MMAFacts.com — and their tireless efforts to get MMA regulated in New York State — for putting the party together, and to MMA Mania’s Jesse Holland for keeping me company at the bar during the fights. After the jump, a few pictures from the event…