(Image via FAIL Blog, obviously.)

By the CagePotato.com Staff

You know you’re a true MMA fan when it starts to negatively affect your work, health, and personal relationships. Check out our latest list below, and let us know which ones apply to you. Props to Buzzfeed for the inspiration.

1. You roll your wrists while blasting “Sandstorm” before every job interview.

2. Kimbo Slice is your favorite professional boxer and Tank Abbott is your favorite author.

3. You used to drive 25 miles to the nearest video store that carried bootlegged copies of King of the Cage events. Now, you complain because there are too many free UFC events on cable.

(God damn it, Tim. We will never forgive you for this.)

We envisioned this week’s CagePotato Roundtable as a friendly take-down of everything from “Hello Japan!” to Tito Ortiz’s brief and terrifying career as a post-fight interviewer. But then a funny thing happened — the UFC canceled their first event of the Zuffa era due to a very unexpected decision by one of their champions, and the world exploded. The Jon Jones/UFC 151 fallout and much more will be covered in today’s column, so grab a beverage and get comfortable. And as always, if you have a topic idea for a future Roundtable, please send it to tips@cagepotato.com.

Seth Falvo

“World Combat League, bro. It already exists.”

In the perfect MMA Universe I envision whenever I eat enough Lotus Leaf, these words are uttered directly to MMA’s Vince Russo, Bob Meyrowitz, while he’s looking for investors for the mind-numbingly ridiculous YAMMA Pit Fighting. Upon hearing them, Bob decides to become a jaded boxing promoter, World Combat League is still the only promotion that uses a bowl as the fight surface and we are all spared the most stupid, embarrassing, gimmicky event since Heroes of Wrestling. Also in this universe: The Super Hulk division is recognized by the UFC as a real weight class, Paulo Filho never touches the GHB, Fedor knocks out Brock Lesnar and then retires as a UFC Heavyweight Champion and Chael Sonnen never attempts that freaking backfist. Who says us nerds don’t know how to party?

Of course, reality is a cruel mistress, and YAMMA Pit Fighting ended up happening despite the best efforts of an injury curse. Much like the aforementioned Heroes of Wrestling, Meyrowitz attempted to cash in on our love of nostalgia by booking a bunch of aging has-beens, never-weres, nobodies and ne’er-do-wells to compete in the promotion’s inaugural event. Never mind that half of the roster hasn’t been relevant in a decade (using “relevant” as loosely as possible in some cases), or that one of the fighters was best known for getting knocked out by a leg kick, or that another fighter was best known to casual fans for his stint on Celebrity Rehab; they’re going to brawl, you guys! Add on one of Brock Lesnar’s Team Deathclutch punching bags, the cheapest journeyman-for-hire you can find, an obese former Toughman Contest champion and some obscure Russians who dabble at sambo — because, you know, Fedor — and we’ll have all the tools for an exciting bankruptcy case after no one watches this. Tack on the incredibly cheesy, stuck-in-the-mid-90s “On the streets it’s against the law — in the pit it is the law” tagline, and laissez les bons temps rouler.

Well, we can’t say we didn’t see this one coming, but it doesn’t make it any more less idiotic. According to Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk, although it’s been 15 years since he penned his acclaimed best seller, there is apparently a Broadway adaptation of “Fight Club” is in the works.

The play, which will likely be based heavily on David Fincher’s 1999 film adaptation that starred Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter, will join Spiderman and Batman as the new wave of live action theatre that appeals to men who aren’t gay or who are simply fans of stupid concepts.

Plahniuk told Shortlist during a recent interview that Fight Club on Broadway will likely happen and that he’s all for the idea, although it’s probably not so much the idea he likes since it’s ridiculous, as it is the barrels of cash he’ll be paid for licensing out his most successful property.

As The Fight Nerd reminds us, this weekend marks one year since the MMAbortion known as YAMMA Pit Fighting was forced upon the world.  In honor of this YAMMAversary, our nerdy friend has dug up some promo material that never saw the light of day.  Remember when Don Frye was originally scheduled to take on Oleg Taktarov in the "Master’s Division" (read: old guys), and then had to pull out with an injury?  It proved to be Frye’s smartest career move, but fortunately for us he had time to film some promos for YAMMA first. 

Say what you will about "The Predator," but he is the master of totally sweet burns that sound like something you’d hear down at the hardware store.  Plus, his delivery is second to none.  Today’s fighters just don’t compare their opponents’ heads to a "five-gallon bucket full of buttholes" quite the way Don used to.

After the jump, relive the awful shitshow that was YAMMA, and then be glad that it went away forever.

We promise, no more Pit Fighting-related posts after this, but we wanted to officially drive the nail through the bowl-shaped coffin with these two videos.

First, the semi-final match between Ricco “#1″ Rodriguez and Travis Wiuff, notable for the classic line “I don’t like that jumping stuff.” The crowd shot at the 2:37 to 2:40 mark is priceless. (As is Ricco’s gut at the 4:45 mark.)

Also, here’s the dreadful Scott Ferrall announcing video that broke the Internet when we tried to post it from DojoTube yesterday. It’s up on YouTube now, and all is right with the world.

We had neither the time nor interest to watch YAMMA live, so if you want a more detailed recap of the sad spectacle than we had in our results post, we recommend going here or here. But if you want the entire depressing, cut-rate experience boiled down into three minutes, look no further than the “Masters Superfight” between Eric “Butterbean” Esch and Patrick “Pillbottle” Smith. Cheers to Smith for dodging Butterbean’s infamous haymakers; jeers to Esch for not being able to get to his feet after slipping. Smith simply got down next to the 416-pound beached whale and dropped punches until Dan Miragliotta decided that the 200 audience members had gotten their money’s worth. If only ‘Bean could have fallen onto the revolutionary YAMMA incline instead — who knows what could have happened…

(The slim-n-trim Butterbean fell victim to a G-n-P at YAMMA’s debut event.)

Well it finally happened…and without much of a hitch. YAMMA Bowl Fighting went down last night, but apparently it’s still too much to ask for the organization to update their website. Shit, guys, it’s just the click of a few buttons. Anyway, the main story was Travis Wiuff taking his record to 52-11 by winning three fights in the heavyweight tourney to pick up the title. He did so by using the leverage of the bowl’s incline to take his opponents to the ground — which is exactly what Meyrowitz said wouldn’t happen with his ground-breaking new surface.

In other fights, Oleg Taktarov kneebarred Mark Kerr for the win and Butterbean verbally submitted due to a GnP from the fresh-outta-jail Patrick Smith. Overall, really boring night. Out of the eleven battles, seven went to boring decisions and three were less-than-thrilling submissions. There was only one KO — a TKO to be precise. We’ll see where YAMMA goes from here. Our guess is it’ll slip into oblivion.

Here are the full results:

– Oleg Taktarov over Mark Kerr – submission via kneebar
– Patrick Smith over Eric Esch – submission via strikes
– Travis Wiuff over Chris Tuscherer – unanimous decision
– Travis Wiuff over Ricco Rodriguez – unanimous decision
– Chris Tuscherer over Alexey Oleinik – unanimous decision
– Alexey Oleinik over Sherman Pendergarst – submission via choke
– Chris Tuscherer over Tony Sylvester – unanimous decision
– Travis Wiuff over Marcelo Pereira – unanimous decision
– Ricco Rodriguez over George Bush – unanimous decision
– Bryan Vetell over Antwain Britt – unanimous decision
– Lamont Lister over Oleg Savitsky – TKO on strikes

Well, we all knew this day would come. YAMMA 1 goes down tonight at the Trump Taj Mahal Arena in Atlantic City, New Jersey, starting at 9 p.m. The live pay-per-view card kicks off at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, and the final-final-final lineup is as follows:

Masters Superfights (two five-minute rounds)
Oleg Taktarov vs. Mark Kerr
Patrick Smith vs. Eric “Butterbean” Esch

Heavyweight Tournament (one five-minute round in quarter- and semi-final matches; championship fight is three five-minute rounds)
Ricco Rodriguez vs. George Bush
Travis Wiuff vs. Marcelo Pereira
Chris Tuscherer vs. Tony Sylvester
Sherman Pendergarst vs. Alexey Oleinik

Alternate Bouts
Antwain Britt vs. Bryan Vetell
Lamont Lister vs. Oleg Savitsky

Standby Alternate
Ron Waterman

Weigh-ins were held yesterday, and Butterbean tipped the scales — and I mean literally, like the thing fell over — at a shocking 416 pounds, meaning he’ll have a 176-pound advantage on Patrick “Because I Got High” Smith. Ricco Rodriguez weighed in at 267.2 on his first attempt, but was able to make the 265-pound limit an hour later. So for those of you who were hoping Double-R would be in better shape than during his paunchy performance against Antonio Silva at “Street Certified” in February, not so much.

We haven’t previously reported on the alternate-bout fighters, so here goes: Bryan Vetell is a 3-3 IFL vet who had the honor of being defeated by both Ben Rothwell and Roy Nelson; Lamont Lister is also 3-3, and has fought in Cage Fury and Palace Fighting Championships; Antwain Britt has a 3-0 record in local promotions; and Oleg Savitsky, the night’s lightest competitor at 199 pounds, has a 1-1 record with his loss coming at the hands of Tim Boetsch. Our money’s on Savitsky to win it all.

We’re guessing that the show pulls in 2,500 PPV buys, but we really have no idea what to expect. Sooooo…anybody plan on attending? Anybody buying the pay-per-view? Has anybody ever seen The Producers, where Bialystock and Bloom come up with the scheme to raise more money than they need for a guaranteed Broadway flop that will close after the first night? Could this have been Bob Meyrowitz’s plan all along?

I know, I know: At this point it’s like “who fucking cares,” right? But for those of you who enjoy following the YAMMA saga on a schadenfreudic level, Mark Kerr has reportedly been taken off the suspended list in Connecticut, which allows the New Jersey Athletic Control Board to give him the go-ahead to compete at YAMMA‘s debut card this Friday, in a “Master’s Superfight” against Oleg Taktarov. Well, assuming he passes final medical exams, that is — no foregone conclusion, considering how much abuse Kerr’s body has endured over the years, both inside and outside the cage. The YAMMA bout would come just two weeks after his last fight; Kerr defeated Chuck Huus by keylock submission at a CCCF event in Oklahoma on March 29th, bringing his career record to 15-6.

FiveOunces also reports that Ron Waterman has been submitted and approved (pending final medicals) as an alternate for YAMMA’s eight-man heavyweight tournament. If you want to see pictures of what the YAMMA pit will actually look like, click here. An empty kiddie-pool with a fence around it? Revolutionary.

Previously: Goodridge Out of YAMMA; For Real This Time?

Here’s a preview clip from tonight’s episode of Inside MMA, in which Ricco Rodriguez discusses his participation in YAMMA’s debut event (April 11th, Atlantic City). We’ve already established that the fight surface is a big bowl, but even Ricco still doesn’t know what the enclosure is going to be like, and doesn’t expect to find out until he gets there. For the record, if it turns out to be Plexiglass, Bas Rutten came up with that idea first. Also, horse-jockey Gary Stevens throws in his two cents, God knows why. (Props to TheMMAPost for the video.)

Bonus: Marcus Aurelio’s armbar of Ryan Roberts on Wednesday was damn nasty…

…and Manny Gamburyan is kind of a dick.

(Props: BloodyElbow)

(Image search result for “f***ed up.”)

Who could have seen this coming? We’re getting just as sick of this as you are, but we’re here to report another change. It was ri-fuckin-diculous the first four or five times they lost fighters, then picked them up again, then lost them yet again. It’s now obvious Bob Meyrowitz and crew are putting together their own version of “The Producers” by creating a new MMA organization that is doomed to fail — on purpose. I almost don’t even have the strength, but here it goes:

Butterbean lost his opponent, Gary Goodridge (again), because GG got KTFO on March 30th. Now YAMMA Pit Fighting has announced Goodridge’s replacement via their myspace page. You’ll never guess who is replacing Big Daddy Goodridge.

YAMMA Pit Fighting has announced that Pat Smith will replace Gary Goodridge in the YAMMA Pit Fighting “Masters Superfight” against Eric “Butterbean” Esch in Atlantic City on April 11, 2008. Goodridge was forced to withdraw from the event after losing a fight in South Korea on March 30, 2008 in what has been determined a knockout. This rendered Goodridge ineligible to fight on April 11 by the New Jersey Athletic Commission, which requires 30 days of inactivity following a KO.

Yeah. That Pat Smith. The one who was supposed to fight Oleg Taktarov in the other “Masters Superfight” of the night, then was out due to his arrest, but who was resubmitted to fight Oleg when Maurice Smith ditched the fight. Mark Kerr is allegedly now taking on Oleg and Pat Smith is allegedly fighting Butterbean. As far as we know, the heavyweight tournament hasn’t changed since the last time we checked.

I can’t think of an event in history that defines “clusterfuck” like YAMMA. Next thing you know they’ll fire the ring bowl girls and hire ring dudes. Until then, if you want a sneak of the YAMMA Girls practicing the YAMMA YAMMA dance, go here.

On a side note, YAMMA has over 2700 friends on myspace so join up if you’re looking for a relationship, a friend, or just want to network.

(We may never get to witness this historic matchup.)

When we first reported that Gary Goodridge wouldn’t be able to fight Eric Esch at YAMMA 1 because he was focusing on his MFC fight against Eric Pele next month, his crew came out in full force to correct us; Big Daddy was up for it, and was ready to “KICK SOME UGLY ASS.”

Well, we had no idea that Goodridge had another fight booked to go down just two weeks before his scheduled appearance in YAMMA’s Death Bowl. Apparently, he fought Mu Bae Choi in Seoul last Sunday and was knocked out in the second round. (Video can be seen here.) Subsequently, the New Jersey Athletic Control Board informed FiveOuncesOfPain that Goodridge would not be approved for his YAMMA fight due to health and safety concerns.

And it gets better: Yesterday we passed along YAMMA’s official announcement that Mark Kerr will be filling in for Don Frye Patrick Smith against Oleg Taktarov in one of the event’s “Masters Superfights,” but the Kerr/Taktarov match hasn’t been approved either due to Kerr’s previous suspension in the state of Connecticut.

So, unless Bob Meyrowitz can successfully bribe the NJACB to allow Goodridge to fight on April 11th, both of YAMMA’s headlining superfights are now in limbo. Our suggestion to Bob Meyrowitz? Save yourself the headaches and do what Strikeforce did — make the two guys who lost their opponents fight each other. Butterbean vs. Oleg Taktarov isn’t a bad main event, in a county fair sort of way. Or, let Oleg slice his way through the eight-man heavyweight tournament and pull up Ricco Rodriguez to battle Butterbean in New Jersey’s own version of the Megaton. Look, your fighting surface is a freakin’ bowl — don’t act like your credibility is at risk.

(Ricco is about to get his YAMMA on)

YAMMA Pit Fighting just won’t give up. They’ve added former UFC champ and Celebrity Rehab star Ricco Rodriguez to their eight-man tournament, and they’ve also announced that Mark Kerr will take on Oleg Taktarov in a “Masters Superfight”. Exactly what Kerr and Taktarov are masters of is still unclear, though indications are that “Masters” is a kinder synonym for “old”.

But wait, it gets better. Details are emerging regarding the mysterious new surface upon which the fights will take place. The good news is, it’s every bit as ridiculous as we’d hoped:

The YPF surface, known as “The Yamma,” is an evolution of the traditional fighting structure and is designed to keep the fighting more explosive and continuous. In today’s MMA matches, fighters rush their opponents in the quest for a takedown, and the fight often ends up on the ground and pushed up against the fence. The action often stalls there, and must be stopped and moved back into the center of the ring. The Yamma’s design is specifically aimed at stopping this break in the action. The Yamma is a circular pit, shaped almost like a bowl, with a circular flat bottom that rises up around the edge. In this ring, if a fighter is pushed backwards towards the fence, he moves up the lip, gaining both a height and leverage advantage over his opponent. From this position, the fighter on the lip can use gravity and leverage to reverse his opponent, and take the fight back into the center without a break in the action.

If this is all a clever ruse by YAMMA founder Bob Meyrowitz to put on an event that is so strange and obviously ill-fated that people are too distracted to notice while he skips town with the fighters’ purses, then I think we can declare it a success. If the goal is anything else, then no.

Ignoring, for the moment, that “The YAMMA” sounds suspiciously like the surface in Chuck Norris’ World Combat League, I also have to doubt that it will work the way Meyrowitz thinks it will. The fact that he refers to fights that go to the ground and end up against the cage as ‘stalling’ is troubling in itself. That makes me think that he is not a man with a real appreciation of MMA.

If you like fights that never go to the ground or end up against the cage, Mr. Meyrowitz, you should really check out boxing. I think you’ll love it.

But beyond that, haven’t we reached a point where we can effectively declare that the possible “surfaces” for MMA competition are settled? You can have a cage, preferably with eight sides and an even, flat floor, or you can have a ring. Meyrowitz says The YAMMA is “about the evolution of a sport”, but if the intent is to limit groundfighting, how can that be considered evolution? Does anyone out there believe that what’s holding MMA back is the lack of a big, sloped bowl for guys to fight in?

Apparently, yes, someone does. That someone is Bob Meyrowitz, and he seems pretty confident that your mind will be blown when you see Butterbean and Gary Goodridge square off inside The YAMMA. My question is, does it really count as “evolution” if the newly-evolved organism dies almost immediately?

(Bone is for the dog; meat is for the man.)

Hey Potato Heads; couple things to pass along this afternoon…

Commenters “Near07″ and “Da Freak” are refuting our earlier report, taken from The Fight Network, that Gary Goodridge has dropped out of YAMMA Pit Fighting’s debut show on April 11th. From the comments on Wednesday’s post:

Near07 Says:
March 28th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
I am talking to Gary and he claims that this article is bogus, and he is indeed fighting butterbean in Yamma!! Not sure who puts thes up, but it should be scraped!! Thanks

Near07 Says:
March 28th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Gary just sent this to me 2 minutes ago
“Just post on it, that you talked to me and I told you it was all bogus and I already talk to Bob M Yesterday being Thursday. We got everything straight. I have but one Manger and it is not Dave Wallis”

Da Freak Says:
March 28th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Hey gang ,
I have no idea where this BS came from, but I am Gary’s training partner and we are in full training camp mode for Butterbean.
GARY WILL BE THERE AND WILL KICK SOME UGLY ASS
Fredd

As with everything posted by blog commenters, everything related to YAMMA Pit Fighting, and pretty much everything posted on this site, take the above with a nice-sized chunk of rock-salt.

In other news, top-ranked female fighter Tara LaRosa, who openly despises Gina Carano, recently made the following post on The UnderGround Forum in reference to “Crush”:

(Maurice Smith becomes the latest YAMMA victim.)

Seriously. It’s now officially fucked up. Let’s count the fighters that Bob Meyrowitz’s YAMMA 1 event has lost to date:

– Headliner Don Frye
– Gary Goodridge
– Frye’s replacement, Patrick Smith
– Rex Richards
– Two undisclosed members of the heavyweight tournament

The fight card on YAMMA’s site has still not been updated, but we’ll try and keep score for ya’. It was reported earlier that Ricco Rodriguez had been tapped to fill in as one of the replacements in the eight-man tourney, but we’re still not sure where that one stands. Rex Richards was replaced by Kevin Jordan. Don Frye had pulled out for whatever reason — probably because he realized how terrible the card is — and Patrick Smith took over. Then Pat Smith had been dropped due to arrest scheduling and 90-year-old Maurice Smith had been submitted as his replacement.

Now 5 Ounces is reporting that Maurice Smith has pulled out due to sickness related to old age (okay, I added that last part). But it gets better. Nick Lembo, attorney for the New Jersey Athletic Control Board, confirmed that Smith was dropping out, but then said the other Smith had been resubmitted. Pat Smith’s charges had been taken down a notch to misdemeanors so he would be able to compete. In case you’re lost by now, Patty would be fighting Oleg Taktarov at the show.

Gary Goodridge has yet to be replaced, but rest assured that the replacement will be well into his forties, if not fifties. Skip Hall should keep his phone on.

YAMMA 1 is scheduled for April 11th at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and we’ll wait until the 10th to publish the fight card, because it just might change. More importantly, those that care about Bob Meyrowitz should put him on round-the-clock suicide watch. This is just too much for one man to absorb.

(“Big Daddy” Goodridge)

If you’re Bob Meyrowitz, at what point do you just throw your hands up and say, “Alright, God didn’t want me to put together a new MMA league; I’m cursed, and my bowl-shaped ring surface is fucking gay.” Because if we were in his shoes, this would be that point.

According to TheFightNetwork, Gary Goodridge’s manager Dave Wallace has announced that Goodridge will not be fighting Eric “Butterbean” Esch in a headlining “Master’s Division” match at YAMMA Pit Fighting’s debut event on April 11th, and has chosen instead to focus on a May 9th fight against Eric Pele at a Maximum Fighting Championship card in Alberta, Canada.

YAMMA 1 has already lost headliner Don Frye, his replacement Patrick Smith (probably), and two undisclosed members of the heavyweight tournament who haven’t been replaced at this point. Of course, YAMMA’s official website still has the same fight card up. Tickets still available!

If there’s one lesson that can be taken from the recent arrest of MMA veteran Patrick Smith, it’s this: Always bring along your prescriptions if you plan on leading police on a wild high-speed chase while taking your crotch rocket out for a spin.

As previously reported, 45-year-old Smith agreed to face Oleg Taktarov at next month’s YAMMA Pit Fighting debut after Don Frye backed out of the match due to a shoulder injury. But, according to MMAJunkie:

[J]ust hours after the announcement, KXII TV 12 in Sherman, Texas, reported that Smith had been arrested after a high-speed police chase. Smith was clocked at speeds of up 130 mph while fleeing on his sports motorcyle, police said. He’s been charged with felony attempting to elude, possession of a prescription drug without a valid prescription, and reckless driving.

It’s not yet clear whether Smith will still be able to compete in the YAMMA event, but in case Bob Meyrowitz needs to find another replacement, Teila Tuli, Ron van Clief and He-Man Gipson are available and ready to work.

Bonus: Patrick Smith pounds Scott Morris’s face into burger at UFC 2. Fight starts at the video’s 3:30 mark and ends shortly after.

(“The Predator” hanging out with a member of the Gay Yakuza, Godzilla, and Godzilla’s girlfriend.)

Sherdog has learned that Don Frye will no longer be fighting in YAMMA Pit Fighting’s inaugural shit-show, which is scheduled to go down April 11th. Frye was slated to face UFC old-schooler Oleg Taktarov, who will now be fighting Patrick Smith (14-13), a 45-yr-old fighter notable for his participation in UFC 1, 2, and 6. At UFC 2′s marathon 16-man tournament, Smith choked out Ray Wizard in 58 seconds, knocked out Scott Morris in 30 seconds, and choked out Johnny Rhodes in 67 seconds before losing to Royce Gracie (submission due to strikes) in the final.

No word yet on what led to Frye’s pull-out, though BloodyElbow is floating the theory that EliteXC poached him to be Kimbo Slice’s opponent for their first CBS show on May 31st. Yes, another old man for Slice to beat on. But Frye is a legitimate legend — talented and tough as nails — and he could easily put Slice in trouble. Just think of the potential staredown! We’ll let you know more as it develops…

(YAMMA 1′s official fight card. Click for larger image. Bro-grabs to BloodyElbow.)

You should seriously check out YAMMA’s official website. Like, now — drop whatever you’re doing and gaze upon the unbelievable tackiness of this ill-fated promotion. First of all, the slogan: “On the streets it’s against the law / In the pit it is the law,” which sounds like the tagline to every shitty Steven Seagal flick ever made. There’s also that amazing bullet-pointed list on the homepage: “The new fighting surface offers NO escape, NO give and NO mercy!” Is it quicksand? It’s quicksand, isn’t it.

The superfights should provide some decent entertainment value, in a used-up-whore-who-now-has-to-give-it-away-for-cheap kind of way, but that heavyweight tournament is gonna be brutal. Can you imagine sitting through seven matches of these bloated journeymen slapping up against each other?

The only way we’ll become fans of YAMMA is if it looks like this:

And honestly, what are the chances of that?

(The future centerpieces of the UFC.)

I don’t make a habit of reading askmen.com unless I’m researching how to properly organize my closet or how taking a cooking class can make me a better lover – my closet has never looked better by the way – but MMA News is directing attention to askmen’s article, 5 Things You Didn’t Know: The UFC. The piece digs up some absurd stuff we knew and some we didn’t about the organization. Case in point:

1- It was supposed to involve alligators
If nothing else, you can’t successfully accuse the original promoters of the UFC of failing to think big. Specifically, in addition to such outrageous ideas as putting electric fences around the ring, one of their many schemes was to include live alligators thrashing around in moats. Fortunately, UFC doctors were a bit more practical in their thinking, advising against such plans because of the potential harm these could do to the fighters.

Was Bob Meyrowitz behind the curtain on this one? It doesn’t give an exact date as to when the gators were to make their appearance, but I’m guessing YAMMA’s showman had crocs and gators as an idea for a new “surface”.

Point number two details John McCain’s flip-flop on his stance concerning MMA, specifically the UFC. That we are well aware of – as we are of point number five, which is that Dana White kept Tito in the UFC in 2006 by offering to go three rounds with him – a ploy that likely won’t work this time around.

— Matt Lindland let it slip to MMA Weekly that he’s just signed a contract with a new fight promotion that will pay him more for his first fight than he made in his entire UFC career combined. He will be fighting only as a middleweight, and his first match is slated for June. Though Lindland wasn’t at liberty to discuss who’s behind the shadowy promotion, word is that Affliction is a primary partner in the deal, and another partner may be Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. If you’ll recall, an earlier report suggested that the UFC had banned Affliction from sponsoring its fighters due to the fighting league it had in the works. Lindland — who has always sort of reminded us of Woogie Woganowski — hasn’t fought since his loss to Fedor Emelianenko via armbar at BodogFight: Clash of the Nations in April.

— Fightlinker found an image from a YAMMA ad that may reveal the design of their mysterious pit. If those are iron bars lining the cage, this thing is going to be run out of town faster than you can say “Meyrowitz.”

— I don’t think I’ve posted about anything non-MMA related on this site since I found out that Ben Curtis was taking orders at Tortilla Flats, but I have to give up the props when it’s necessary. This video list on HolyTaco is the greatest thing I’ve seen online since I discovered the Professor Brothers. Not the father FTW.

(Don’t worry, Butterbean: We don’t think Gary’s creaky hips will allow any flying kicks.)

In addition to a previously reported fight between UFC throwbacks Don Frye and Oleg Taktarov, YAMMA Pit Fighting’s inaugural show on April 11th will also feature a second “Masters SuperFight” bout between Eric “Butterbean” Esch and Gary Goodridge. We’re not sure what Esch is a “master” at, other than swallowing basketballs whole without chewing, but he’s built up a decent 11-5 MMA record since 2003, with wins over Wesley Correira and James Thompson; his last fight was a submission loss to Nick Penner at TFC: First Blood in December.

Gary “Big Daddy” Goodridge is probably best known for his horrific knockout-by-elbows of Paul Herrera in his Octagon debut at UFC 8 (2/16/96). He later jobbed through a mediocre career in PRIDE, then moved to K-1 HERO’s where he built up a 3-1 record since 2005. His last fight was a TKO victory last March over Jan Nortje (more on that later). Fun fact: The average age of the four men booked for YAMMA’s Masters SuperFights is 41.

As for the eight-man heavyweight tournament that YAMMA also has planned for its debut show, the word is that Wes Sims, Chris Guillen, and Travis Wiuff will participate. Here’s hoping that Bob Meyrowitz‘s new spectacle doesn’t get MMA re-banned across the country. And good luck turning a profit. This sort of thing tends to suck up money faster than Butterbean sucks up pans of lasagna.

(I’ll kick your ass in 1996!)

We recently chatted to UFC founder Bob Meyrowitz about his newly-formed YAMMA Pit Fighting organization, but couldn’t bribe him to give up the names of fighters he was close to signing for the debut event. Well, jump in your time machine and set it for the mid-1990′s. Don “The Predator” Frye was interviewed by TAGG Radio and has revealed he has signed on the dotted line to fight none other than Oleg “The Russian Bear” Taktarov.

As posted by MMA Junkie:

“I hope (YAMMA) made the announcement because I just signed to fight Oleg Taktarov,” Frye said.

The alleged old-timers ball is supposed to be for the April 11th Trump Taj Mahal show and will be one of the “Masters SuperFights” that YAMMA has planned to go with their eight-man tournament that evening. The report is that the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board has tentatively approved it with shorter rounds and medical examinations sandwiched by fights.

(Artist’s rendering of what the YAMMA pit will look like.)

Bob Meyrowitz is the former CEO of eYada.com and Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG), the company that launched and ran the UFC until 2001. Many blame Meyrowitz for the near-demise of the UFC before Dana White and the Fertittas took over and built the organization to its current level of success. It was recently announced that Meyrowitz has started up a new MMA organization, YAMMA Pit Fighting. When we got word that Meyrowitz was once again throwing his hat into the MMA ring, we had to know more and gave him a call. Although there’s a lot he’s still not leaking to anyone, we got him to open up about what YAMMA’s mysterious new surface is not, and some of his plans for the new fight club.

CagePotato: What made you want to jump back into the MMA business after your troubles with the UFC?
Bob Meyrowitz: I’d been out of the business for about five or six years, but I had this thought for a new surface — which I don’t want to overplay — but it was about getting people excited and talking about it. Really the surface is what started everything.

What can you tell us about this mysterious surface?
(laughs) Trust me on this, it’s not that mysterious. I’ve read some of the blogs. There are no hydraulics or sharks involved.

Do you feel your PPV and publicity contacts give you a head start in getting YAMMA off the ground?
Well, I think my pay-per-view knowledge is certainly going to be helpful. But I really look at my [MMA] knowledge…my overall knowledge of how you promote, how you entertain, how you make a star.

Given the choice, would you sign a fighter with a lot of hype behind them, like Brock Lesnar or Kimbo Slice, or a proven fighter who may not have much of a TV personality?
What I have always looked for is the best possible athlete. They take care of themselves. Is Brock Lesnar the best possible athlete? I really don’t know.

(Meyrowitz is giving MMA another go.)

We already gave you the heads up about UFC founder Bob Meyrowitz’s plans to step back into the MMA business. And now the details are here thanks to a press release sent out this morning.

YAMMA Pit Fighting is the name of the new organization and they’re promising a “unique approach” to their MMA events. Intriguing for sure, but as we said already, is yet another MMA organization good for the sport? Especially one from a guy that ran his first organization off the tracks? Regardless, it’s going to happen – unless Yamma goes all WCO on us. Appears Meyrowitz’s new joint will be throwing a few events for Pay-per-View, with the debut event kicking off in Atlantic City on April 11th of this year.

Check out some of the press release:

Los Angeles, January 29, 2008 – Ultimate Fighting Championship founder Bob Meyrowitz and his company Rope Partners today announced the formation of a brand new mixed martial arts (MMA) league, YAMMA Pit Fighting (YPF). Continuing in his role as a trailblazer in MMA, Meyrowitz and YPF will take a unique approach to the sport by reviving the Tournament fighting format and unveiling a new fighting surface that promises to revolutionize the traditional MMA approach.

Trailblazer is a strong word. Someone who initially had good ideas and the gumption to keep the sport going after being banned in 48 states, but didn’t have the long-term vision to carry it past its rough years – thus kicking your own company in the balls – that would be a better term. Whatever term that might be.