MMA Hot Stuff

UFC 87 Confirmed: Heavyweights Lesnar & Coleman share the spotlight with Lightweights Huerta and Florian

The UFC has confirmed two bouts for UFC 87: Seek And Destroy, to take place on August 9th at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

UFC 84 Pay Per View Locations

Wondering where you're going to watch BJ Penn take on Sean Sherk?

Here's a list of sports bars that will be showing the UFC 84 pay per view event.

Oh, and don't be too jealous but I'll actually be AT UFC 84! I know, life.is.so.rough!

MMA Live on ESPN: Are you ready for the mainstream?

ESPN has been slowly but surely getting more and more involved in MMA. First they added a MMA specific page to ESPN.com as well a partnership with Sherdog, and now they are having a weekly show called MMA Live. Basically, it's SportsCenter focused on MMA. The premier episode includes Kenny "KenFlo" Florian as a guest correspondent.

I've gotta give my opinion on a few things:

1) Kenny is a great correspondent! He's got the look and is a very well spoken and articulate fighter. Kenny really gives MMA a good name.

2) I like this MMA Live concept. You've gotta admit, ESPN is the "world wide leader in sports", so I'm glad to see they are getting more and more involved in MMA and helping bring it to the masses.

Here's the premier episode:

UFC 84: Dana White & Tito Ortiz. Tell us Dana, how do you really feel?

The UFC held a media call this week to discuss the upcoming UFC 84 card. Although the main event for this card is BJ Penn VS Sean Sherk for the lightweight title, one might think the main event is Dana White VS Tito Ortiz in a verbal sparring match.

During the call, Dana had some choice words about Tito Ortiz, saying "Tito is a f***ing idiot. He's one of the dumbest human beings I've ever met. Everything that comes out of his mouth makes no sense... I put up with his s*** when he was a good fighter (but) he's not anymore."

In a previous post I had talked about Tito's future after this fight. Well apparently EliteXC is showing some interest as Gary Shaw has referred to Tito as a "superstar" and is stating that he thinks he could make Tito even bigger than he was while with the UFC. Well, it's likely that Gary will have a legitimate shot at Tito because it doesn't look like Dana White and UFC will be looking to re-sign Tito to a UFC contract. Dana had this to say about the matter, "I have no interest whatsoever in being in the Tito Ortiz business".

On a side note, Dana's comment brings up an interesting point. Is Tito Ortiz a "business", or a fighter? Or is he simply smart enough to be both? I don't always agree or like the way Tito has handled situations, what he's had to say, or how he's handled his relationship with the UFC, but I will say this for the man, he knows how to market himself and understands that this is a business. Fighting is a sport with a fairly short window of opportunity and no "league minimum" salary. The smart fighters are the ones that realize this and utilize their abilities in the cage to set themselves up for financial success after the cage door has slammed shut, with them on the outside. Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture are great examples of a few that have figured that out and excelled at it. So Dana, is Tito really that stupid? He seems pretty damn smart from where I'm sitting.

So, how does Tito feel about Dana and his comments? Can we expect some parting words from Tito after his fight with Lyoto Machida? Here's an interview Tito did with Beatdowntv.com that answers a few of those questions:

CUNG LE TRADING CARD

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  May 15, 2008

 

 

DONRUSS CREATES CUNG LE TRADING CARD

 

 

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Newly crowned Strikeforce World Middleweight Champion, Cung Le (22-0), has been selected to appear in the first-ever mixed martial arts trading card series manufactured by Donruss Trading Card Company. 

 

Slated for release in mid-July, “Ring Kings,” produced as an insert series for the larger Donruss “Americana II” set, will be comprised of approximately 30 different trading cards featuring a collection of the sport’s top superstars. Several editions of the Le card, including an autographed version and a version containing swatches taken from Le’s competition shorts, will be issued. 

 

“We’re excited to be able to include Cung in our program,” said Scott Prusha, Marketing Director for Donruss. “Cung is an extremely exciting fighter and winning the Strikeforce championship was really a big thing.”

 

Le’s third round TKO of mixed martial arts legend, Frank Shamrock, which aired live on SHOWTIME on Saturday, March 29^th, earned the Vietnamese-born fighter the Strikeforce world title and marked his greatest professional victory to date.

 

Prior to entering the world of mixed martial arts in 2006, Le pioneered the Chinese combat discipline of San Shou kickboxing, which incorporates devastating throwing techniques as well as striking, and amassed a perfect 16-0 record in the world of professional kickboxing. Several of his conquests in the kickboxing ring have aired repeatedly on ESPN and ESPN2. 

 

More recently, Le has been touted as Hollywood’s next big martial arts film star. His role in the forthcoming release, Fighting, co-starring Terrence Howard, will mark Le’s debut on the silver screen. Le was also recently cast in the silver screen adaptation of smash hit video game franchise, Tekken, slated for release next year.

 

The Americana product, which Donruss launched last year, pays tribute to the societal contributions and achievements of various, prominent figures ranging from award-winning actors Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn to legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin to President George W. Bush. Like Donruss’ other offerings, cards from the Americana II set will be packaged and sold in both retail and hobby stores nationwide. 

 

About Strikeforce:
Strikeforce is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made history with its “Shamrock vs. Gracie” event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California state history. The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion Frank Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out, record crowd of 18,265. Since 1995, Strikeforce has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming for ESPN and, after 12 years of success as a leading, world championship kickboxing promotion, the company unveiled its mixed martial arts series with “Shamrock vs. Gracie.” Since then, it has co-produced the first SHOWTIME PPV mixed martial arts event in history with its world championship “Shamrock vs. Baroni” card on June 22, 2007.

Kimbo Slice VS Iron Mike???

It's been reported today via numerous sources that 41 year-old Mike Tyson has verbally agreed to fight Kimbo Slice in an EliteXC promotion. Gary Shaw, president of EliteXC is denying that any such discussions with Iron Mike have taken place. Although he also states, "I know Mike. Yes, I would make that fight in a heartbeat".

Although I'm sure that fight would be an enormous draw, I'm pretty sure it would be  for all the wrong reasons. This wouldn't be a fight that fans show up for because they want to see who the most skilled MMA fighter is, but rather because they want to see exactly what outrageous event would occur between the utterly insance Mike Tyson and the former street brawler.

Even with his limited number of MMA fights, there's no doubt that Kimbo could take this fight to the ground and finish it rather quickly. So what's the fascination???? But of course, the preverbial train wreck that is, Mike Tyson. Most people would probably tune in to see Iron Mike play scrabble in hopes of seeing him bite the ear off of his opponent.

Although the age old argument of how a boxer would fare in an MMA fight, and vice-versa, is an intriguing one, this isn't the fight to find the answer.

Tito Ortiz at UFC 84: End of chapter, or end of story?

Coming up on the last fight of his UFC contract, Tito Ortiz finds himself as the underdog against Lyoto Machida. It’s easy to see why Tito’s the underdog, his last fight was almost a year ago (a draw with Rashad Evans), he hasn’t tasted victory since October ’06 (TKO in the rematch with Ken Shamrock), and it seems he’s been focusing most of his efforts lately on his celebrity status as opposed to his fighting skills. Along with that, Machida is one of the hottest fighters in the light-heavyweight division with impressive showing in his last few fights, and impressive wins on his pre-UFC resume.

So this begs the question, will this fight simply be the end of the “UFC chapter” of Ortiz’s career, or the end of his career all together? It’s tough to imagine an MMA world without Tito Ortiz, especially given his popularity in this sport and his ability to sell a fight. One would assume that an organization like EliteXC or Strikeforce would love to sing Ortiz, especially if he is victorious against Machida and proves he's not at the end of his fighting career. After all, who wouldn't love to see Tito V Frank Shamrock again? The pre-fight trash talking alone would be worth signing Tito to a contract.

But what if Tito loses? Questions will certainly arise regarding his commitment to the sport versus his commitment to Hollywood. Dana White said it best, "I think he has the will and the desire to be successful. He doesn't have the will and desire to be the best fighter in the world". Will Tito carry have any allure for fight fans in another organization, or will he simply be a former UFC fighter put out to pasture and picked up by another organization on the downslope of his career?

I for one think Machida is the clear favorite in this fight, but will admit I miss the days of Tito’s severe trash talking and cocky attitude. It use to be that Tito wouldn't even refer to losing a fight, now he states "win, lose or draw I'm going down swinging", that's just not the same Tito. He just doesn’t seem to have the swagger he once had. Then again, it’s hard to imagine Tito leaving the UFC on a losing note, especially given the animosity between him and Dana White.

All of these variables, both in and out of the cage, and the importance of this fight for the future of both fighters should make for a great fight. I wouldn’t miss this one for the world (and in I’ll be there in person!!!). Now the real question, I’ve got a $100 burning a hole in my pocket… Lyoto or Tito? Tito Ortiz as an underdog may be too good to pass up!

Nick Diaz back on for fight with DREAM! No, really, we're serious this time!

After a lot of back and forth, it appears that Nick Diaz is now officially confirmed to be fighting on the May 11th DREAM 3 card. GracieFighter.com news reported that the issue went all the way up to the CEO of Pro Elite, Doug DeLuca, and was finally agreed to between Doug and representatives from FEG.

After all this, are they going to change their mind again? I hope not, because apparently he's on a plane to Japan as we speak!

Good luck Nick!

UFC Roster Cuts

As you MMA fans know, the UFC (Zuffa) has been trimming the fat... that's right, heads are rolling, they're downsizing, pink slips galore! Many fighters have been let go from their UFC contracts over the past few weeks as the organization works towards reducing their roster by about 25%.

The UFC has been "the place to be" for MMA fighters hoping to fight the best and turn their talents into fame and fortune, and the UFC knows this is an industry driven by the talent of the fighters they posses. They've leveraged their reputation as the leading promoter in MMA to snatch up the best and the most talent. As Dana White put it in an intervew with ESPN The Magazine when asked about other promoters like IFL or EliteXC, "I don't look at those guys as competition at all. They're nowhere near the league that we're in. I need shows like that. They're the feeder leagues. All the guys who fight in those shows aspire to be in the UFC someday. They're creating all the UFC talent of tomorrow".

Well, the downside of snatching up all of that talent was the inability to get their biggest stars more than 1 or 2 fights per year. I think we as fans all see it, our favorite fighters only fighting once or (maybe) twice (if we're lucky) per year. Although the UFC has an abundance of talent, this industry hasn't survived off multiple stars, but a few mega-stars.

Why don't we take a look at the top grossing MMA events from the state of Nevada?

Rank	Main Event	Paid Attendance	Gross Sales
1	CHUCK LIDDELL vs. TITO ORTIZ II	12,191	$5,397,300.00
2	GEORGES ST. PIERRE vs. MATT HUGHES (Chuck vs. Wanderlei)	9,704	$4,994050.00
3	QUINTON JACKSON vs. CHUCK LIDDELL	13,224	$4,304,740.00
4	CHUCK LIDDELL vs. RANDY COUTURE III	10,301	$3,382,400.00
5	TIM SYLVIA vs. ANDREI ARLOVSKI (Tito vs. Ken)	9,999	$3,350,773.15
6	RANDY COUTURE vs. GABRIEL GONZAGA	9,622	$3,307,790.00
7	CHUCK LIDDELL vs. RENATO SOBRAL	8,954	$3,040,880.00
8	ANDERSON SILVA vs. TRAVIS LUTTER	8,700	$2,767,130.00
9	CHUCK LIDDELL vs. RANDY COUTURE II	12,643	$2,575,450.00
10	ANTONIO NOGUEIRA vs. TIM SYLVIA	7,167	$2,437,890.00
11	CHUCK LIDDELL vs. JEREMY HORN	11,634	$2,336,550.00
12	FEDOR EMALYANENKO vs. MARK COLEMAN	8,079	$2,056,444.00
13	DAN HENDERSON vs. WANDERLEI SILVA	8,334	$2,033,098.00
14	RICHARD FRANKLIN vs. NATHAN QUARRY	9,995	$1,986,600.00
15	ANDERSON SILVA vs. RICHARD FRANKLIN	8,913	$1,790,490.00
16	RICHARD FRANKLIN vs. DAVID LOISEAU	8,183	$1,758,450.00
17	TITO ORTIZ vs. KEN SHAMROCK I	13,055	$1,540,340.00
18	TITO ORTIZ vs. VICTOR BELFORT	9,268	$1,493,555.00
19	CHUCK LIDDELL vs. TITO ORTIZ I	9,129	$1,444,020.00
20	VICTOR BELFORT vs. RANDY COUTURE	8,831	$1,377,620.00
21	RANDY COUTURE vs. VICTOR BELFORT	8,597	$1,293,035.00
22	RANDY COUTURE vs. TITO ORTIZ	7,593	$1,127,985.00
23	KEN SHAMROCK vs. KIMO LEOPOLDO	6,528	$  901,655.00
23	JOSH BARNETT vs. RANDY COUTURE	7,663	$  898,850.00
25	TITO ORTIZ vs. VLADIMIR MATYUSHENKO	7,238	$  816,660.00
26	RANDY COUTURE vs. CHUCK LIDDELL I	5,517	$  645,140.00
27	RANDY COUTURE vs. PEDRO RIZZO	4,295	$  502,550.00

All of the events highlighted in green have something in common. Can you figure it out? It may take some time and research, and there's a few in there that aren't so obvious, so I'll just go ahead and give you the answer. All of those events highlighted in green, 19 of 27 (70%), featured either Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell or Tito Ortiz. Even when one of those fighters wasn't the main event, they were part of the fight card.

So what's the big deal? Well, as you know Randy no longer fights for the UFC and Tito is anxiously awaiting the last fight of his UFC contract at UFC 84. That leaves Chuck, who even in his late 30's is still a huge PPV draw and could fight for another 5 years of so.

Even with Chuck still under contract the UFC has to be thinking of a succession plan for it's biggest remaining star. That succession plan is hopefully one involving getting more fights per year for fewer fighters and building those fighters into the superstars of tomorrow. A clear example of this strategy would have to be Roger Huerta, one of the new faces of the UFC and one that fought 5 times in 2007, with 4 of those taking place every other month from February through August... talk about a grueling schedule.

Only time (and fight cards) will tell if we get more of what we want as UFC fans, but I think the UFC is on the right track by letting some of the talent go so it doesn't sit stagnant on the shelf. Best of luck to those fighters looking for a new home!

Randy Couture Hosting Upcoming Charity Event

Randy Couture is hosting a Charity 5K walk/run titled Operation Freedom Run, to benefit the Xtreme Couture G.I. Foundation. The event will be held at the Centennial Hills YMCA in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday, May 17, 2008. Funds raised from the event will go towards a foundation formed to raise money and awareness for US troops who have been wounded fighting the war on terrorism.

Randy created the Xtreme Couture GI Foundation in 2007 after visiting with amputees at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and being touched by their stories. The Foundation's goal is to help fit amputees with top of the line prosthetic devices to allow them to continue living an active and athletic lifestyle.

Date: Saturday May, 17 2008
Registration: 6am - 7:50am
Race Time: 8am 5k walk/run
Cost: $45 Before May 12th ($60 After May 12th)
Address : Centennial Hills YMCA, 6601 N. Buffalo Dr. Las Vegas, NV 89131

Awwww yet another reason I heart Randy. <3