Tank Abbott

(Too old for this shit vs. Too fat for this shit.)

It was the fight that needed to happen. Well, maybe needed is too strong a word, but vodka bottles and turkey legs don't grow on trees, and it's either this or substitute teaching. That's right, freak-fight-fans: UFC pioneer Tank Abbott (10-14) and beach-ball-shaped knockout artist Eric "Butterbean" Esch (13-7-1 MMA, 77-7-4 boxing) will be getting it on at a Thunder Promotions MMA event called "Alabama Pride," which will go down December 12th at the BJCC Arena in Birmingham. Amazingly, both men are coming off wins. Abbott snapped a four-fight losing streak in February with his KO via rabbit punches of Mike Bourke. Butterbean last competed ten days ago, defeating Tom Howard by RNC in a fight that looked like it might have been a work; either that, or Tom Howard really is a belly-flopping pussy (no offense).

Now, Butterbean and Tank will finally get to see who has the better haymakers. But don't be surprised if Bean tools Tank on the ground; he's honed his grappling at American Top Team, and his last four wins have come by submission. "Alabama Pride" also promises a celebrity fight between rapper DMX and Eric Martinez, who's so famous that Wikipedia has never heard of him. If anybody can shed some light, please do so in the comments section.

After the jump: The event poster, and why Tank vs. Bean probably won't be decided by leg kicks.

(Belfort vs. Matt Lindland @ Affliction: Day of Reckoning, 1/24/09. Fight starts at the 0:59 mark.)

In honor of Vitor Belfort's return to the UFC this Saturday, here are nine of the Phenom's greatest knockouts. Folks, this is how you throw hands. Keep your chin down, Rich...

(Belfort vs. Terry Martin @ Affliction: Banned, 7/19/08.)

Ah, the freak show.  Where honest competition meets the insatiable human desire to see something weird, typically in Japan.  In light of the events at this week's Dream "Super Hulk" tournament, we thought we'd take a look back and count down the ten craziest, most outlandish freak show fights in MMA history.  Some are bizarre enough to be fun.  Some are just horrible.  At least one is actually kind of good.  All are totally insane.  Enjoy.

#10: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Zuluzinho
Pride Shockwave 2005, 12/31/05

Zuluzinho (real name Wagner da Conceição Martins, which explains why he goes by Zuluzinho) got his shot at Fedor for two reasons: 1) he is the son of the now legendary Zulu, the Brazilian beast of a man who should be familiar to anyone who has seen “Choke,” and 2) because at 6’7” and nearly 400 pounds, he’s a big, scary-looking fat dude.  What he isn’t is quality competition for Fedor, and that’s why he got the fight on December 31.  Everyone knows Fedor loves to beat a freak’s ass to ring in the New Year, the bigger and freakier the better.  

Just in case there was any doubt that this was an almost criminal mismatch, Zuluzinho erased it by going down with the second punch thrown in the fight.  We like to think that as he was falling time slowed down like in the movies and Zuluzinho allowed himself to wonder just for a moment, 'Is there a chance that the Pride matchmakers haven’t been taking me seriously?'

(If I have one regret in life, it's that I was not able to rate the Cabbage vs. Tank fight more than ten Octagons.)

From a press release sent out by Spike:

(Ken Shamrock: haggard as he wanna be.)

Our boy Michael David Smith over at MMA Fanhouse conducted an interview with Ken Shamrock that can most charitably be described as 'contentious.'  Give MDS credit, he doesn’t shy away from the tough questions, and neither does Shamrock.  After making vague remarks about why CBS refuses to work with him, Shamrock admits he is a fighter, “not a mastermind,” which naturally is news to us all.

But where things get interesting is when MDS presses Shamrock on his most recent sad display of something resembling fighting against 380-pound Ross Clifton.  Shamrock admitted that he only took that fight because he didn’t want to fight someone who might have reasonable chance of actually beating him, since this was just a ploy to set up a fight with Tank Abott, which, get this, may be on PAY-PER-VIEW.  Leave it to MDS to ask the questions you’re thinking:

But you think it is possible that you fighting Tank is something that could do well on pay-per-view?
I would absolutely say yeah. Especially since I fought some fat guy, out of shape, no good, and it got over 300,000 hits on YouTube, OK? So tell me. Some big, fat, out of shape, fat guy, is going to do bigger numbers than somebody fighting a main event fighter, like [Ken's adopted brother] Frank Shamrock and Nick Diaz, who probably won't even get those numbers. And you're saying that your opinion -- which I didn't know writers had one, I thought you were just supposed to write the story -- is that because I did that, we got those numbers, we shouldn't be going out there and having those fans watch that, even though they're turning on the tube and they're pushing in the numbers on the computer to watch that thing happen?