tapout

As predicted, five-time UFC light-heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell and TapouT founder Charles Lewis Jr. will be inducted into the UFC's Hall of Fame this week, according to a press release published last night. From UFC.com:

After making my MMA highlight reel debut with "Sakuraba: Survivor," I decided to follow it up with a new compilation that's both shorter and less depressing. The concept of "Stranglehold" is quite simple: Here are some of the most creative and infamous choke-submissions in recent MMA history, soundtracked by Ted Nugent. The cast of characters include Nate Diaz, Dan Miller, Renato "Babalu" Sobral, Shinya Aoki, BJ Penn, Nick Diaz, Demian Maia, CB Dollaway, and Toby Imada. Let me know what you think, and if you dig it, please share with a friend.

(BG)

Mike Straka with Fox News Fight Game was at yesterday’s memorial for Tapout’s Charles “Mask” Lewis at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.  Well-known MMA figures like Lorenzo Fertitta, Joe Rogan, and Josh Barnett all spoke about what Mask meant to the sport, and TapouT’s Dan “Punkass” Caldwell urged that he be remembered for helping people. 

Whatever you think of the facepaint (and there’s even a glimpse of a photo of Mask without it, if you’re curious), you know you’ve lived some kind of life when they hold your memorial at a place with “cathedral” in its name.  RIP, buddy.

From TapouT.com:

As TapouT co-founder Dan "Punkass" Caldwell told Sherdog: “I just really felt like the Crystal Cathedral was calling. It’s where Charles would have wanted it. [With] some of the spiritual aspects of Charles, I knew we really wanted it in a church...It almost looks like Superman’s lair with the shards of glass bursting up into the sky. There’s not another place like it, that I could think of, in Southern California. It was just so fitting for Charles.”

Related: 'Mask' not on drugs, alcohol in deadly Ferrari crash

(Via RawVegas.tv)

Well, this is far less awkward than Wanderlei Silva’s advertisement/guided tour of his own gym, because this time around we have a native English speaker to help us make sense of what the hell’s happening.  Dave Farra is also crafty enough to use the tour of the facility as a ruse to ask Silva the hard questions, like, does he think GSP cheated?  ("He dominate the fight, he don’t need this, no?")  Does he want another shot at “Rampage” Jackson?  ("Of course.")  ‘Sup with the playground?  ("The kids need to have fun too, you know?")

I’m satisfied with those answers.  Although I am surprised to hear that Silva had a six-month training camp before the Jackson fight.  On one hand, that can't be a good idea.  On the other hand, if only you could put Silva's work ethic in B.J. Penn's body.

After the jump, Dana White talks more about the death of TapouT’s “Mask” and explains why the news hit Chuck Liddell especially hard.