When Frank Mir got injured and had to pull out of his scheduled fight with Strikeforce champion Daniel Cormier for their scheduled November 3rd fight Dana White asked UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione to fill in for Mir. On Saturday White told reporters that Mitrione had turned down the fight and that he was not happy about it.
“It fucking makes me sick,” White said, according MMA Junkie. “Listen, you don’t want big opportunities, I hear you. I get it, then. All I can say is, I guess he doesn’t want big opportunities. I get it. Duly noted.”
White went on to say that Mitrione’s decision to just continue to train for his already scheduled December 29th against Phil De Fries was “fucking insane.”
“It makes no sense to me, and it’s insane. I’m a little bummed out by it. We’ll figure it out. Yeah, [Mitrione has already got a fight booked]. He said, ‘I’ll just take that one.’”
He’s also been vocal and degrading in expressing his distaste for the New Mexico coach over the years. From blaming Jackson for fighters’ performances that were less than titillating to White to, more recently, calling Jackson a “sport killer” after his charge Jon Jones turned down a last minute replacement fight with Chael Sonnen at UFC 151, Uncle Dana routinely blasts Jackson.
Those days are over, though, according to White. After yesterday’s UFC on FX event White told assembled media that during a meeting with Jones prior to his title defense before UFC 152, President and Champion struck a deal wherein White would stop insulting Jackson and his camp.
“I sat down with Jon Jones and we talked, I made a deal with Jon,” White said. “I’m not going to say anything about Greg Jackson [anymore].”
When the UFC first announced that Stefan Struve vs. Stipe Miocic would be the main event of yesterday’s UFC on FUEL 5, most of us assumed that the fight would serve as a coming out party for Stipe Miocic. Even though he hadn’t faced any big names in his UFC career, the heavy-handed prospect certainly looked like he was Cleveland’s next best hope for a champion. Putting Stipe in the cage with a fighter that (arguably) has a weak chin could produce a highlight reel knockout and put Miocic “in the mix” at the heavyweight division.
Except that didn’t happen. Miocic managed to land some heavy shots throughout the fight, but in the end Struve proved to be too much, earning the TKO in the second round. While Miocic outworked Struve throughout the first round, Stipe Miocic had no answers for the lanky heavyweight’s offense once Struve actually started using his jab. Sorry, Cleveland, but you really should have seen this one coming.
This isn’t meant to take anything away from Stefan Struve, as he looked pretty impressive with his victory. Any questions about his chin seemed to be answered yesterday, as he weathered some heavy punches on his way to earning the TKO. And forgive us if we’re harping on this, but when Struve actually uses his jab, he’s a completely different fighter. His lanky attack creates problems for everyone in the heavyweight division, warranting a post-fight comparison to Jon Jones from Chael Sonnen (except Chael added that Struve has twice the courage of Jon Jones, naturally). The twenty four year old fighter improves to 9-3 in the UFC, and is currently riding a four fight win streak.
The UFC makes its first (and only!) U.K. stop of 2012 today, with a card that’s low on star power but high on potential fireworks. If you’re reading this right now, it means you’re at least sort-of interested, and that’s good enough for us. So which heavyweight main-eventer is about to put himself “in the mix”? Can Dan Hardy string together his first back-to-back wins since 2009? Will Matt Wiman be just another notch on Paul “Sassangle” Sass‘s sassbelt? And WTF is wrong with Kyle Kingsbury, anyway? The answers to most of those questions will be revealed shortly.
Handling liveblog business for the UFC on FUEL 5 main card broadcast is George Shunick, who will be stacking round-by-round results after the jump beginning at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m PT. Let us know how you feel in the comments section, and refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest. And as always, thanks for spending part of your weekend with us.
After watching several cartoonishly corny videos (the first above, more of which we will subject you to after the jump) we’re not sure what “Warrior Island” is, exactly, but from the little we can glean it is even more stupid than X-Arm. If you’re not familiar with X-Arm, watch this and realize the magnitude of the above claim.
We’ll mostly let the videos speak for themselves but it appears as if something called Global Proving Ground (GPG, to help this future pop culture phenomenon get rolling) is pitching a reality competition television show that will, in some way, include martial artists pitted against one another on an island. They are holding tryouts – you don’t want to miss the audition tapes below – and we, the ardent GPG fans will vote on who we want to see on the island, or something to that effect.
Oh yeah, they are also trying to bilk “fighters” out of $9.95/month for supposedly expert advice from a tatted up doctor that looks like every annoying guy at any MMA event ever.
In the opening trailer we see several shirtless, fat men running pained and barefoot through some vaguely Polynesian beach forest, at least one emaciated looking dude doing the same, and an unidentified Dan Severn jogging with a gray t shirt on.
The camera cuts to other exotic locations where actors perform the clunkiest sparring demonstrations you’ve ever seen: The world’s least flexible ninja doing Karate, two guys battling ever. so. slowly. with Wu Shu swords on the Great Wall of China, or something, while tinny-sounding sword clashing audio is superimposed over the video. Wait until you see the thrilling Pankration demonstration or the two guys who don’t know what Sambo is, demonstrating what Sambo is.
The audition tapes contain one perfectly nice gentleman that says he’s practiced Kung Fu every day since 1970. As he prances around delicately, completely off balance for fighting at almost every juncture, take comfort knowing that, no matter how bad your day is going, at least you haven’t wasted 42 years of your life doing something useless every day.
Audition tapes and an appeal from Dr. Douchebag after the jump.
(As you can clearly see, there’s no way I could have smoked any weed before UFC 143 because I had not picked even a single nugget yet. I rest my case.)
Since he tested positive for marijuana metabolites after his UFC 143 loss to Carlos Condit and was suspended for a year and fined nearly $80,000 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC), Nick Diaz has fought the punishment in just about every place he could, and continued Wednesday by filing a Memorandum of Points and Authorities to support his petition for judicial review. So far, Diaz and his high-profile legal defense team have struck out in appealing to the Nevada State Attorney General and the NSAC itself in a hearing.
The NSAC has thirty days to respond and after that a judge will hear Diaz’ petition. Luke Thomas and MMA Fighting spoke with a member of Diaz’ legal team:
The Commission needs to understand that it cannot act with impunity in the exercise of its authority…In Diaz’s opinion, while fighters must respect the lawful authority of state athletic commissions, they should not accept unjust and unlawful disciplinary action. Further, Diaz finds it bizarre that the Commission is vigorously policing legal marijuana use outside competition while at the same time endorsing and sanctioning the use of steroids and testosterone — which has a direct effect on fighters and their opponents in competition. The Commission needs to refocus itself on protecting fighters and the fairness of the combat sports they regulate. Diaz believes this legal proceeding may provide the Commission a helpful push in the right direction, for the benefit of all fighters and the reputation of the sport itself.
Diaz’s petition has some interesting and seemingly compelling parts to it, including his lawyers’ contention that marijuana metabolites are not, in fact, banned substances. But they also continue to stretch out some arguments.
This video profile from Chris Van Vliet of WOIO-TV reveals the man behind the knockouts, showing Miocic as a hungry, blue-collar dude, with a bit of a goofy streak and tremendous athletic capabilities. (Legit ‘WTF?’ @ that inverted pull-up at 2:12-2:13.) Though he still has some ground to travel before he gets a title shot, he already has his mind set on the ultimate goal: “I want to be remembered as a guy from Cleveland that brought home a championship, you know, break that curse. The first thing I would do is bring that belt home and walk through Cleveland and say ‘we did it’.”
(Careful Clay, all those fruity, sugary, woman drinks ironically go right to the hips.)
On the heels of a razor thin split decision loss to Gray Maynard at UFC on FX 4, his second loss to top tier competition in as many fights, it appears that everybody’s favorite energizer bunny/alcoholic, Clay Guida, will be dropping to featherweight for his next fight. Although no debut date or opponent have been decided as of this write up, Guida told MMAJunkie that he expects to make his featherweight debut sometime in early 2013.
Prior to his current two fight skid, Guida racked up four straight wins over such names as former PRIDE lightweight kingpin Takanori Gomi and former WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis among others, pulling in two Submission of the Night awards in the process and bringing his total award count to 7.
Stefan Struve, Stipe Miocic, Dan Hardy, Amir Sadollah, and the rest of the fighters on tomorrow’s UFC on FUEL TV 5 card will be hitting the scales today at the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham, England, and you can watch all the thrilling weigh-in action in the player above, beginning at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT; we’ll be updating the results after the jump. Remember to come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT for our liveblog of the FUEL main card.
I know what you’re thinking — how did we screw up this time? Well you can all exhale, because Zuffa isn’t actually suing CagePotato. Instead, the UFC brass has cited a recent CagePotato article on page 7 of the amended complaint to their lawsuit against the State of New York; click here for a screen-shot. So this is actually a happy occasion, and perhaps a sign that the relationship between CP and the world’s largest MMA promoter is beginning to thaw. (We’ll let you know when our new press credentials arrive in the mail.)
If you’ll recall, the Zuffa vs. New York lawsuit was originally filed last November, and it alleges that the State’s failure to sanction MMA is a violation of various portions of the U.S. Constitution. Thus far, a lot of legal wrangling (i.e., motions to dismiss, responses, dirty looks and curses muttered under the breath) has gone down but nothing major has been decided. So what do you, the casual MMA fan, need to know to be able to drop some knowledge on the subject when you find yourself talking shop at a cocktail party?
Just this: The amended complaint focuses more on how the New York State Athletic Commission allows some events but not others, that the Commission is confused as hell when it comes to the law banning professional MMA, that amateur and underground shows in New York are a freakin’ free for all, and that the law is insanely vague. Most notable is that the First Amendment claim found in the original complaint – that pro MMA events are a form of free speech – is still in there.
There you go, those are the news tidbits, condensed into bite-sized, easily-digestible form. However, if you’re the kind of discerning MMA nerd who needs more detail, here’s a comprehensive list of how the amended complaint now differs from the original complaint:
(“Don’t worry, Carlos, I’ll let you hold a real belt for a minute after this photo op is over.”)
Earlier today, the UFC held its official press conference to announce the long awaited showdown between welterweight “champion” Georges St. Pierre and “interim champion” Carlos Condit at UFC 154. And we may have had to do some regrettable things for this guy in a parking lot to get it, but we’ve managed to snag the full video of the press conference for your viewing entertainment.
Join us after the jump to hear Condit and GSP engage in a good old fashioned battle of politeness. Seriously, GSP is so nice that he even declares Condit to be the true champion at one point. Condit tries to fire back by stating that St. Pierre is ”the best in the world,” but one does not simply ”out-nice” a Canadian.
(It’s safe to say that it can’t end any worse than the first time.)
Over the past two years, Joe Warren has gone from a tough-nosed underdog to an unexpected/abrasively arrogant champion to the poster child for what not to do if you ever become an MMA champion. His strategy of trying to win two belts before he could defend one (also known as Hendo-ing) backfired in epic fashion to say the least, resulting in a pair ofbrutal knockout losses to Alexis Villa and Pat Curran, the latter of which cost him the title he had actually earned. Not only were these losses thoroughly embarrassing for his “Baddest Man on the Planet” shtick, but the damage resulting from them will likely challenge his mental stability down the line if you know what we are saying. The fact that he obtained the featherweight title in the fashion he did — getting absolutely dominated only to score a flukish comeback thereafter — only led people to further question his decision to drop down a weight class in hindsight.
Unfortunately for Joe, his combination of bad decision making and bad luck left him with nowhere to go other than back down to bantamweight for his next fight at Bellator 80, which goes down on November 9th. Fortunately for Joe, the matchmakers at Bellator or going to give him a much easier opponent this time around…
(“Welp, that’s the last time I try to use left-handed scissors.”)
From Tito’s neck to Lensar’s gut to Cruz’s knee to Belfort’s hand, injuries to TUF coaches have become the rule lately, not the exception. And Shane Carwin nearly became the latest name on that list after injuring his knee in training. According to MMA Weekly, Carwin suffered no major tears or damage to his knee, but it was enough to prevent him from traveling to England this weekend for a scheduled autograph signing.
As of now, Carwin is still scheduled to face rival Roy Nelson at the TUF 16 Finale on December 15th. But as Dan Henderson and Jose Aldo recently demonstrated, sometimes fighters try to tough out their injuries until the last possible moment, before dropping out when reality sets in. And since Carwin already withdrew from a UFC 125 fight against Roy Nelson, and because he’s spent much of the last two years recovering from neck and back surgeries, the appeal of just getting in there and throwing down against a guy you can’t stand must be overwhelming.
While we certainly hope that’s not the case, and that Carwin is close to 100% by December, this is the 2012 UFC Injury Curse we’re talking about — Carwin’s knee could merely be a red herring for the horrid fate that lies in store for Roy Nelson.
(Skip to 3:45 to watch Sonnen chew up the scenery. Props: AlwaysSunnyonFX)
“It was just nice to finally get my break. I’m sure you can imagine, you know, the plight of the blue-eyed German male in this country, and if I finally get my chance, great — if it doesn’t, I’ll go back to the streets and return to gang-life.”
The eighth season of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia premieres Thursday, October 11th, at 10 p.m. on FX. It’s still unclear if Sonnen and the other members of the “replacement” cast will be actually be getting screen-time that night, or if this is just one of the most bizarre promos in the history of basic cable. couchbirth.gif, you guys.
The UFC will be making it’s return to jolly old England this weekend and go figure, the card is of the mid to low interest range and will be broadcast for free here in the States (unless you don’t have FUEL, of course. What’s that? NO ONE has Fuel?!). Not that we’re complaining about a night of free fights, but the buzz surrounding this event could best be described as tumbleweeds. Fortunately for you, there are at least five good reasons to tune in Saturday afternoon, which we’ve laid out in a convenient list format with bold titles and everything. Aren’t we just the best?
1. A Main Event That Definitely Ain’t Going the Distance
As BG explained earlier, a fight with Stefan Struve ends in one of three ways; Struve via submission, Struve via (T)KO, or Struve’s opponent via uber-violent KO. His fights are like the Paranormal Activity movies; you know from the start how badly things will end for the parties involved, but it’s the path to that ending that you’re interested in. The same can be said for the undefeated Stipe Miocic, minus the uber-violent losses of course. Miocic has been on an absolute tear since entering the UFC and has finished 2 of his 3 opponents in brutal fashion. In fact, in a combined 38 fights, the two main event players have only seen the judges scorecards twice. And Saturday night will be no different; Struve will either take this fight to the ground and try to pull off a sub or throw caution to the wind and get savaged. In either case, it will make for one incredibly entertaining fight.
In fact, the combination of Struve’s aggressive grappling, underrated knockout power, and tendency to lose consciousness during fights has made him one of the least decision-prone fighters on the UFC roster; his 8-3 record in the promotion includes only one fight that went the distance, which came in his December 2009 squeaker over Paul Buentello.
But it’s impossible to ignore that the three losses on his record all came from brutal, lights-out, first-round knockouts. Does that worry Struve, who will be entering the cage this Saturday against the heavy-handed (and heavier-elbowed) Stipe Miocic at UFC on FUEL 5 in Nottingham? No, because Struve actually has a great chin, if you think about it. Allow him to explain:
I just watched the first official trailer for UFC 153: Silva vs. Bonnar and I’m stoked, Nation. Not because the brief montage of fight film, music and narration fooled me into thinking that Stephan Bonnar somehow isn’t a gigantic underdog against Anderson Silva, but rather because the trailer is so honest about his chances and what we’re likely to see. It’s a nice change of pace.
Check it out above and see what I mean. After injuries jacked up UFC 153′s main event twice as well as the originally scheduled co-main, the UFC did the best they could by getting the world’s best fighter on the card and throwing a fearless, aggressive, entertaining fighter at him. The trailer serves as a reflection of this, as it basically tell fans, “Look, Anderson Silva is probably going to knock Bonnar out and we all know whenever ‘The Spider’ does that it’s hella exciting. But if somehow that doesn’t happen, and Bonnar wins, well that would be as big of an upset as we’ve ever seen, and dang, wouldn’t that be exciting, too? Please watch us. It’s been a rough year.”
Being that I own a computer and all, I find that calendars sit very low on the “Things I Desperately Need to Purchase” list whenever I manage to escape my man cave and venture into the human world. That said, I may just have to put off purchasing that Bosch 1274DVS 3 x 21 in. Variable Speed Belt Sander the next time I make a trip to the local mini-mall, because not only do octagon girls Brittney Palmer and Arianny Celeste have some damn fine looking calendars in store for us, but apparently so do the girls from Championship Fighting Alliance.
We know what you’re thinking: “I’ve never heard of CFA before; will that impede my ability to enjoy the calendar shoot you’ve placed before me?” Well that depends; Do you have to own a Shake Weight to enjoy the commercials? That’s what we thought, so enjoy the video and keep up on all the CFA ring girl happenings over at their official website.
Taking an in-depth look into the training and general fight philosophies of the UFC’s biggest stars, The NOC’s “Training Days” series is back, this time profiling UFC lightweight champion Ben Henderson as he prepares to prepare to defend his belt for the second time against Nate Diaz at UFC on FOX 5 in December. You read that correctly.
After scoring a pair of hotly contested wins over former champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 144 and 150, Henderson takes us through his daily training regimen at his gym in Glendale, Arizona. Not yet in full-on “training for Nate” mode, parts one and two give us a look at the intense shadow boxing sessions that Bendo begins each workout with. It’s not exactly the most thrilling routine in the world, but it does give you an idea at the amount of preparation that goes into the average training session of a UFC champion. Hell, you could even put these techniques to practice the next time you find yourself caught in a Taiwanese cage fight with a raged out Billy Blanks.
Part one is above. Check out part two after the jump.
Another Tuesday night has come and gone which means Fuel TV was the destination of choice for most MMA fans. At least it probably was, if A.) you are lucky enough to have the channel and B.) weren’t too busy watching Tosh.O or Sons of Anarchy. Now that I think of it, I’m guessing a total of four of you actually watched last night. Not to worry, Potato Nationtatersyou guys, we watched UFC Tonight and UFC Ultimate Insider for you and laboriously jotted down all the juicy news and rumors for your enjoyment. Here’s what you missed:
Reminder: UFC on Fuel 5 starts at 4pm ET this Saturday. Plan your weekend accordingly.
Speaking of UFC on Fuel 5, one half of the main event Stefan Struve attempts 4.5 submissions per 15 minutes of fighting but has 0% takedown defense. That is not a typo. He has been grounded each of the four times an opponent has attempted to take him to the canvas. I’m no expert, but isn’t that a little troubling? Maybe it’s all just a part of “Skyscraper”‘s master plan considering 16 the BJJ purple belt’s 24 victories come by way of submission. It’s kind of hard to argue with results like that.
(“No, God Damn it, we’re on the Y part of the song, not the A! Have you guys even heard The Village People before?!”
We’re only three weeks into the NFL regular season, yet fans all over the country have become infuriated with the league over the blown calls and inconsistency of the replacement referees who have been officiating games during the referee lockout. The fact that last night’s Seahawks vs. Packers game was literally decided by the poor interpretation of the league’s simultaneous catch rule has been the focus of water cooler discussions all over the country – even here. Yet this inconsistency is hardly unique to the replacement referees, or even professional football. As MMA fans, we see this all the time.
Case in point: During the main event of Saturday’s UFC 152, Vitor Belfort threw a kick at the head of a “downed” Jon Jones. Despite this being against the rules, ”Big” John McCarthy simply said to Jon Jones “You wanted to play the game.” Is this selective enforcement of the rules good for our sport? Today George Shunick and Seth Falvo will make the arguments for and against this practice.
The Argument For, by George Shunick:
Let’s get this out of the way; the phrase “you’re playing the game” stems from a fundamental dissonance in the Unified Rules of professional Mixed Martial Arts. Namely, that stomps, soccer kicks and knees to the head of a downed opponent are maneuvers that should be allowed in accordance with the philosophy of the sport, but can’t due to certain political realities and, arguably, health and safety concerns. So certain situations arise, like Vitor Belfort throwing a head kick at a crouching Jon Jones, which defy the rules, but not the spirit of them.
Here at CagePotato HQ, we’ve decided to take a break from our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this street fight video. On the scale of Worst…Street Fight…Ever to Redneck Defends Fiance’s Honor, Wins on Points, we’d have to rank it somewhere above the latter, if only for the decisive, not to mention completely unexpected finish it provides. Plus, an onlooker shouts, “Kick his ass, sea bass!” and there’s even a very audible “F*ck him up!” tossed in for good measure, so this video basically appeals to all audiences.
(Matt Hamill plays airplane with his freakishly large, Progeria-ridden child after defeating Roger Hollett earlier in the evening.)
It may be a futile effort to draft up these Armchair Matchmakers given the chaos that injuries are creating at every turn these days, but God damn it, a comedic MMA website has to have its principles! So with that in mind, we decided to scour through the wreckage left behind by UFC 152 and provide some potential opponents for the UFC to consider when booking the night’s biggest winners down the line. Join us and voice your opinions in the comments section, won’t you?
Jon Jones: Despite his best trolling efforts, it appears as if the UFC will actually show some common sense and wait to see if Chael Sonnen can at least defeat one “contender” at 205 (you know, the one he’s supposed to face) before expediting him right to a title shot because the fans apparently control the matchups all of a sudden. We were all for Sonnen/Jones on 8 days notice, but it’s clear that Jones only has two opponents truly worthy of getting ground into dog meat by him next. The first is Dan Henderson, who Jones blamed for the whole UFC 151 fiasco in the first place. He’s clearly next in line in a division that is suddenly absent of marketable contenders (sorry, Alex) and will hopefully be back to his normal H-bombing self before osteoporosis sets in and we have to go through this all over again. The second option…well, let’s just say that he would give Jones an offer that he could neither refuse nor defend. Specifically, “Five of these across the sneeze.”
(With her continued film success, we may never get to see Gina weigh in for a fight again. Alas…)
Former MMA champ Gina Carano has been tied to yet another Hollywood major motion picture, according to Variety:
As ‘Haywire’ star Gina Carano continues to establish herself as an action heroine with an upcoming turn in ‘The Fast and the Furious 6,’ the former MMA fighter has become attached to topline an all-female riff on ‘The Expendables.’
And you thought you were turned on by watching the original Expendables flicks, nation. We can get behind this project for sure.
We don’t know much else about the film yet but Adi Shankar, who produced The Grey, Dredd 3D and Brad Pitt’s new mobster movie, Killing Them Softly, is going to be producing it.
“I don’t know how I’m supposed to make a movie that is supposed to be the female version of ‘The Expendables’ without Gina Carano in it,” Shankar was reported as saying. “It would be like making Twix without caramel or Jamba Juice without jamba.”
Yeah, those are two really weird examples to use as analogies but we’re excited to see Carano in anything that involves her kicking ass in very little or at least tight clothing.
(Who knew keeping your back against the cage was effective defense? This kept Vitor’s knee from ending up like Willis McGahee. Pic Props:Ryan Kightlinger)
Yesterday on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, your all too friendly, neighborhood reporter-humping, cage fighter made an appearance. And, as per usual, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson left the MMA world with a lot to talk about after withdrawing from UFC 153 and using TRT to trading verbal jabs and “F*ck you!”‘s with former TUF 10 contestant, Matt Mitrione. What was more notable from the interview was Jackson’s criticism of light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and his dirty, dirty knee kicks.
Vitor took the fight on short notice, and this is how you respect him, by kicking his knee backwards and stuff like that? He’s supposed to be a man of God. You can injure somebody, you can sever their career. You can mess people up for life kicking their knee back like that and he does it repeatedly, over and over. To me that has no honor. I take a lot of honor in fighting. He has no honor.
The former Pride and UFC champion went on to question why the athletic commission even allow “stuff like that” to be legal, arguing that if Jones keeps fighting dirty like this, he’ll put everyone on the shelf and won’t have anyone left to fight. As it would turn out, he’s not alone. TheScore.com’s Adam Martin took to twitter to voice his displeasure of the use of linear kicks to the knee as well and reminded his followers that the CSAC already bans the technique.
We all saw lightweight Charles Oliveira get dropped and finished by Cub Swanson Saturday night at UFC 152. What we didn’t see, according to cut man Jacob “Stitch” Duran, was Oliveira injure his knee just before fighting Swanson while warming up in the locker room.
“I do know that in preparation for going out there, warming up, he twisted his knee,” Duran told MMA Junkie.
Duran also said that Oliveira needed assistance walking up the steps into the Octagon to fight Swanson. Junkie could not immediately reach Oliveira or representatives of the fighter but pointed out that “medical suspensions made public…on the Association of Boxing Commission’s official record keeper, mixedmartialarts.com, stated that Oliveira has drawn an indefinite term and needs a CT scan or MRI to be cleared to fight.”
You know, Jared’s right — we could use a fresh CagePotato t-shirt design around here. And while I don’t necessarily agree that our next shirt should feature the bizarre catchphrase of a diabetic XARM fighter, it’s always fun to see what the artistic types in the Potato Nation can come up with when presented with a challenge.
And so, we hereby announce the Tater Williams Memorial CagePotato T-Shirt Design Contest of 2012, Bitches. The rules are simple…THERE ARE NO RULES. Well, maybe there’s a couple rules. Shirt designs can be based on anything MMA-related, but must incorporate our name and/or logo (image links below), and must be e-mailed to contest@cagepotato.com by October 16th. That gives you three full weeks to find inspiration and hustle something up. We’ll announce the winner(s) by the following Monday.
If we actually use your design to produce shirts, we will give you $100 cash, straight up. Plus, there’s the whole pride-of-victory thing, and the knowledge that your creation could end up being seen in literally tens of sports bars and gyms one day. Sound good? Any questions, let us know in the comments section.
And we gotta say, Bundy O’Neill definitely knows his stuff. His assertion that Jones may actually welcome wrist control from the guard as a way of setting up an elbow strike is an incredibly astute observation to make and one I hadn’t personally considered when dissecting Jones’ game, so a kudos is in order for the Emmy-nominated star of Modern Family. Although Vitor has admitted to easing off the armbar when he heard Jones’ arm pop, the Gracies believe that had Jones not attempted to slam his way out of the armbar, Belfort would have never even come close to pulling it off in the first place. We know Jones claimed that he needed to embrace his Jiu-Jitsu a little more after the fight, and perhaps moments like this confirm that, but the fact that the champ was able to submit a black belt like Belfort with a picture perfect Americana shows that he surely knows a thing or two about the ground game when he needs to.
Check out the full video, which also breaks down Jones’ fight-winning Americana, after the jump.
It’s hard to imagine that bits and pieces can still impress you so much once you’ve seen the whole thing, but that is clearly the case for Ronda Rousey. The Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight champ recently stripped down to this little number for the cover of women’s fitness magazine Oxygen, and according to the tweet she sent out that accompanied it, her photos were apparently “deemed too sexy” for a magazine whose covers often look like this:
Say what you want about Rousey being a one-trick pony in the ring, but she is clearly coming into her own as a model. I mean, just look at her face here. It’s seductive, yet controlled, inviting yet distanced, like a stripper who is trying to act interested as you complain to her about those damned TPS reports. This woman is clearly well-rounded in the art of looking hot.
All we’re saying is if this fighting thing doesn’t ever take off for Ms. Rousey, she has a solid career to fall back on.
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