health club or bjj club?
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MMA-GAF |OT4| BangBros
- Thread starter polyh3dron
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health club or bjj club?
A
A More Normal Bird
Unconfirmed Member
They had a submission grappling match which Shields won. I think there's very little reason to believe that an MMA bout between them would look much different or be more entertaining. Although there's always the chance that it turns into 15 minutes of awkward standup.
bone_and_sinew
breaking down barriers in gratuitous nudity
Just bang, bro
Lambda Pie
Banned
bros, i trust none of us gonna get banned in the coming hours. be strong.
Can Crusher
Banned
Hold my hand brother
bone_and_sinew
breaking down barriers in gratuitous nudity
I'm not even going to gaming side.
if you're posting in gaming, you're doing it wrong.
Lambda Pie
Banned
i'm leaving the site, i don't wanna even get hit with collateral from the shitstorm. see ya guys tomorrow.
Can Crusher
Banned
What a pussy. This is MMA gaf, the bangbros, the alpha island of neogaf.
This won't even phase us. Right guys? no?
This won't even phase us. Right guys? no?
What a pussy. This is MMA gaf, the bangbros, the alpha island of neogaf.
This won't even phase us. Right guys? no?
Be careful amigo. This kind of hubris will lead to destruction
What a pussy. This is MMA gaf, the bangbros, the alpha island of neogaf.
This won't even phase us. Right guys? no?
this is the kind of hubris that lead to yacobod getting got. learn from his fall.
Can Crusher
Banned
Is there any other reason to buy expensive gaming hardware? I would play on my cellphone if I didn't care about graphics.
Just a regular health gym. I gotta get my functional swole on before i do anything else. Also i gotta get me some employment and get the man to start cutting me some checks.
Thanks for letting me bro
Can Crusher
Banned
Oh shit, 8GB ram daaaaamn
I wasn't expecting that one ahahaha amazing. Gaming Side is gonna go apeshit.
I wasn't expecting that one ahahaha amazing. Gaming Side is gonna go apeshit.
Same old shit with better graphics, what were you expecting?
Seriously, what a wasted concept. Why not a normal person attempting to live or rebel in this world...something like that?
Maklershed
Member
I can't tell if you're saying you want to fight someone or bang someone.
dream
Member
Well, obviously, we're not the target demographic (read: intelligent adults) for these developers. They're going after people who play games called "Revengeance."
The latter Timothy. The latter.
Lambda Pie
Banned
i tapped. Sony did it for me. The Witness sounds brilliant, the sculpting is something my overactive imagination will welcome. they did it. getting one.
BigJonsson
Member
Monitoring people is bad.....play my game on PS4 while it watches you and predicts your actions as you play
Paranoid guy is part of the problem!
Can Crusher
Banned
Capcom game looks insane visually.
Lambda Pie
Banned
1080p for all.
Yeah. I'm assuming the title "Deep Down" means it's some kind of next generation dungeon crawler?
Outside of The Witness that's the only game that looked interesting to me.
BigJonsson
Member
Can't wait to see what Microsoft has to offer
And I am soooo glad I sold my Wii U at launch, what a disappointment that has turned out to be
And I am soooo glad I sold my Wii U at launch, what a disappointment that has turned out to be
Honestly i always thought that would be the case. 8 gigs was always the logical step. But as far as this presser goes..I mean i saw a controller..and 3 trailers. I think i had bowel movements more exciting than this.
Maklershed
Member
Dat Ac Milan vs Barcelona
I want to hear from the gaming side "insiders" who said 8 gigs of gddr5 was impossible. "TRUST MY SOURCES!"
So fuckin shiny.
GungHo
Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
It's about time you guys started noticing my majesty.
dream
Member
Anyway, enough kideo game crap. Here's some stuff I wrote.
There's been an almost unspoken, but underlying theme, ever since it was announced that the main event on UFC 157 would be Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche.
The decision was questioned from the onset. Some people were mad UFC was opening its doors to women, particularly since Dana White had said for years that it would never happen. Some were mad UFC has put its full promotional muscle behind Rousey. Some were mad Rousey was getting more media attention than all but the top few fighters in the sport. Some were mad that women are headlining a show, in particular over Dan Henderson, an all-time great fighter (the irony here is that Henderson, when asked, has not only had no problem, but has made it clear he's happy his fight is three rounds instead of five and that his fight has only gotten a small fraction of the general public attention as the main event).
Some are mad that the first woman's fight in UFC history was put on pay-per-view, rather than free television, treating it like UFC somehow has a gun pointed to people's head when it produces shows, forcing them to spend $45 and that watching this show is akin to taking what they expect to be bad tasting medicine. Some questioned the choice of Carmouche, almost a complete unknown, best known for putting up a good fight, winning the first three rounds, before losing via submission in the fourth as a last minute replacement in a Strikeforce title match against Marloes Coenen two years ago.
It's already been proven with Rousey and Gina Carano that women can draw television ratings. Carano vs. Cris "Cyborg" Santos proved that the right woman's main event can sell a lot of tickets. But that's the only woman's fight in history to really prove that. And pay-per-view is uncharted water when it comes to women being able to draw in any combat sport. I have little doubt Carano vs. Cyborg, had it been promoted at the time by UFC, would have been a strong success on PPV, given that the show did the highest rating for a full show (2.17) in the history of Showtimes MMA.
But Carano was a unique individual. While Rousey has gotten more media attention in a short period of time and is a more skilled fighter, she does not have the unique connection that comes across on television that Carano had. But she just as clearly has far more than any other female fighter to date.
There is no show in UFC history where there is a percentage of people who claim to be UFC fans, perhaps not a large percentage but one that is very vocal, who so badly want to see it fail. UFC has put on plenty of main events over the years that people knew in advance probably weren't going to do great numbers, or shows that had slow ticket sales. Advance ticket sales have picked up greatly in the past two weeks. As of late last week, they had sold 10,000 tickets for $1.2 million and that was before the major media was hitting. If the last week continues at this pace, with the normal level of comps, they will sell out, and at worst will end up just shy. They are now well ahead of the pace of the prior show in the market.
Los Angeles has been a tough market for UFC, even though ratings are strong. Several UFC shows have done strong last week sales to the Hispanic community. The lack of a Hispanic headliner here may play a factor in that regard, but its very clear there is major momentum locally, with the show selling 3,000 tickets for $400,000 between the airing of the first and second Prime Time show.
But the advance numbers from more than a month ago got far more attention and were treated as failure far more than shows with male champions that were on course to do significantly lower. Considering they only sold 4,000 tickets the first weekend, and traditionally UFC does most of its sales right away, and PPV is a late impulse buy, that could indicate a strong showing on Saturday. But with women, its still a very different dynamic. Only one womans fight in history has done well on PPV, the Laila Ali vs. Jacqui Frazier-Lye match billed as Ali vs. Frazier IV, in 2001, which did 125,000 buys. That number was considered shockingly high at the time. But even though Christy Martin got similar publicity to Rousey as a media darling in boxing, she was always used as a preliminary attraction underneath the major stars on boxing PPV shows and the attempts to headline with her failed. Ali, who had both the look and the golden last name, never really captured peoples attention as a main eventer except the ultimate gimmick match against Joe Fraziers daughter.
But the ticket buying pattern in the Los Angeles market looks like there is good momentum for a fight that at the start there was very limited interest in. But guaranteed, if the show does well on PPV, there are scores of people who will then try to credit it to Henderson.
In episode two of UFC Prime Time building up the fight, Rousey for the first time noted this hatred, ugliness that borders on the response Hank Aaron got in another generation for being a black man about to beat a legendary white icon's home run record. Dana White yesterday in England acknowledged it existed, but believed it was starting to turn around.
With Aaron, it was tens of thousands of racist letters. Today, with social media, even if the numbers aren't anywhere near as big because the issue pales in comparison as a story, they are harder to escape and ignore.
"There's so many times I want to be like, fuck it, I don't want to do this anymore," she said in the close of the show about her fighting career. "I don't want to wake up, open my phone, and see that someone says that they're happy my dad died because I'm a slutty piece of shit. I see it every day.
"I don't know how you're supposed to retain any kind of faith in people when you have to deal with that all the time."
As with the first episode, Rousey was clearly portrayed as the star. The final scene where that unspoken theme of this event comes out publicly for the first time, ends up as the lasting memory. Whether Rousey is happy about it may be another story.
Rousey herself, noted at a press call this week that she wasn't thrilled with the final scene of the first show, in tears, opening up about the death of her father when she was eight years old. That close made the show perhaps the most praised fight buildup shows UFC has ever produced.
"Those interviews, a lot of times, they go on for hours and they, it's like an interrogation, they try to wear you down and get you emotional. They're really good at what they do.
"And there's just been a lot of media, and it just got to the point where there were so many people asking questions like that. I think they do it in a very calculated way. Like first, they ask you to think of the good memories, and stuff like that, and then it just brings you back where you recount the good stuff and then they immediately jump to the hard questions. And I finally got to the point where I was just really fed up with being asked to recount that over-and-over. I really feel like that's the final time I'm ever going to talk about the way that my father died. And I felt like since it was the last time I was going to say it, then I was going to tell the story the best way that I could."
But also like last week, until that point, Carmouche comes across as the more compelling character. She comes across incredibly likeable on camera, always smiling, and treating her lifestyle like an open book for the viewer to digest.
Carmouche spent more than five years in the U.S. Marines, including three tours of Iraq, where, among other things, she worked as an aviation electrician. She also excelled in their martial arts program. But she lived in fear the entire time, since homosexuality in the military was not tolerated at the time.
"It was really difficult being in the Marine Corps, I wanted to come out," she said. "I wanted to be able to openly embrace it and I couldn't do that. I don't know how many people knew 100 percent I was gay, but there were people that suspected.
"It was really very difficult. It was humiliating. It was embarrassing. I always felt like I had knots in my stomach looking over my shoulder wondering if somebody's going to bust me."
But she even talks of that as being a positive.
"I'm grateful for the experience, because it made me stronger and it made me who I am today."
For Rousey, this fight is a different kind of "coming out" party. She's expected to win. Time, HBO, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and others have followed her training for major features that came or are coming out this week.
Still, the second episode leaves one with a few questions. In training at Big Bear, shes working heavily on boxing. But her bread-and-butter is judo. Watching the career arc of Demian Maia, one of MMAs best grapplers who was a weak striker, then went all out learning striking without working as much on his takedowns and submissions, stalled his career which has back on the fast track since hes concentrated on what he does best.
The other involves her nutritionist. Apparently staying within shooting distance of 135 isnt easy for Rousey, who competed at 154 in judo (the number is misleading as a direct comparison since judo does same day weight-ins) at the Olympics and had competed as heavy as the 171 pound class at times. She only eats one meal a day, dinner, and only eats carbohydrates every other day. That one meal thing may have worked for Herschel Walker, and low carbs may be great for a bodybuilder, a model, or someone trying to lose weight quickly, but its not healthy and makes no sense for an athlete preparing to fight, or someone using their brain to learn new techniques. In addition, her nutritionist had her fasting one day a week.
But for Carmouche, who lives a hand-to-mouth existence, waking up at 6 a.m. to get her training in while working 14 hour days at the San Diego Combat Club, it's more pragmatic.
If she does well financially in this fight, or overcomes to the 12-to-1 odds and wins the championship, she can buy herself a kitchen table, and perhaps some furniture, which she doesn't own, get a less beat-up car, and buy a home in Hillcrest, a gay community in San Diego. A win will allow her to bring her mom in from Mexico.
She has encountered ugliness of a very different kind than Rousey, who has gotten the brunt of the fan hatred because of how much publicity she's received. Portrayed as a sex symbol today, it wasn't that many years ago when she was winning international judo competitions, but in high school, she was nicknamed "Miss Man," because of her muscular body and Cauliflower ears, which are now completely hidden from view, except when shes fighting or training, due to her long hair.
For Carmouche, she moved from Oceanside, where she felt her lifestyle wasn't accepted, to move to a community that she really couldn't afford to live in, because it's a haven for the area's gay community.
She hasn't gotten the spotlight, but if it comes, she's more than happy to embrace it.
"I'm proud to be who I am," said Carmouche. "I want to be that person for everyone else to look up to. It's something that I'm proud of. I wear a rainbow mouthpiece, a rainbow sports bra. It shows that I'm all about showing I'm proud to be who I am and I've overcome my difficulties and I want people to think they can do the same. It's just a matter of giving everything you have."
Official numbers for UFC 157 on 2/2 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, which was the Jose Aldo Jr. vs. Frankie Edgar fight, was 7,136 paid, 3,139 comps for a total attendance of 10,275 and a gate of $2,437,150. There were 548 empty seats.
The scheduled for UFC 157 on 2/23 in Anaheim is it will open with Facebook fights at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, with Nah-Shon Burrell vs. Yuri Villefort, Neil Magny vs. Jon Manley and Brock Jardine vs. Kenny Robertson. On FX at 8 p.m. is Caros Fodor vs. Sam Stout in a Strikeforce veteran vs. UFC match, Dennis Bermudez vs. Matt Grice, Former TUF winner Michael Chiesa vs. Anton Kuivanen and the FX main event is a heavyweight battle with Brendan Schaub vs. Lavar Johnson. The PPV has Court McGee vs. Josh Neer, Josh Koscheck vs. Robbie Lawler, Urijah Faber vs. Ivan Menjivar, Dan Henderson vs. Lyoto Machida and Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche for the womens bantamweight title.
UFC released Cris Cyborg from her contract. On paper, it looks like Tito Ortiz managed her right out of the biggest fight of her career, but theres clearly more going on than meets the eye. She refused to cut to 135, and they refused to add a 145 pound weight class. She had her doctor send UFC a note that if she tried to cut to 135 she could die. I wonder where all the doctors who warn her about dying and not being able to have kids were when she was filling herself with steroids and changing herself from a world class handball player at a peak athletic weight of 135 to 140 pounds where she looked like a female athlete as opposed to a competitive female bodybuilder. UFC wanted Cyborg to sign a new eight-fight contract, but Ortiz didnt want her signing for so long. UFC released her to sign with Invicta, where she signed a three-fight deal that gives her the right to go to UFC at any time. White had earlier all but brokered a deal where he would send Cyborg to fight in Invicta, pay her contract money to get her fights before the Rousey fight and to keep her busy before she was able to get her weight down. Shannon Knapp of Invicta agreed, and then Tito Ortiz came in, asked for Cyborg to be released, she was, and she signed with Invicta. When Ortiz announced her signing a three-fight deal with Invicta, instead of talking about opponent Ediane Gomes, or champion Marloes Coenen (neither were mentioned once by either Ortiz or Cyborg at least on the televised portion of the press conference), all she and Ortiz talked about was a future fight with Rousey. If you watched the press conference on television (it aired on AXS TV), the only way you would know about who her opponent was would be when they unveiled a poster for the show. A photo of Gomes, who almost nobody would know, was on the poster, as was her name. On the poster, at the bottom, it read live only on pay per view, even though PPV was never mentioned by anyone at the press conference either. From what Im told, they are trying to negotiate a live PPV, which is a big financial risk. The deal is not completed. It would go head-to-head with a TNA taped PPV and be the same weekend as WrestleMania. Nobody has been able to pull off PPV successfully in MMA except UFC, and there have been groups that have run with a lot bigger names than Cyborg that have failed. The idea of this show as a live PPV with the costs involved a very risky deal. As for iPPV, with the costs being low, they could do it without losing money, but they wont make a lot off it either. Invicta did an iPPV for its last show but there was a transmission issue and Knapp then allowed everyone to watch it for free and refunded everyones money. The claim was it was the most people who up to that point had ordered an iPPV through Ustream. Cyborg was there wearing a T-shirt that read Ronda will be my bitch, (a takeoff on Ortiz wearing a T-shirt Gay Mezger is my bitch after he had beaten Guy Mezger in a fight in the late 90s). This made no sense at a press conference where they were announcing the signing of her to Invicta. Cyborg vs. Gomes will be on the 4/5 Invicta show from the Ameristar Casino and Hotel in Kansas City, with the winner going against Coenen for their 145 pound title on the following card. Cyborg beat Coenen in 2009 to keep her Strikeforce 145 title by being too strong for her at the time and winning by third round stoppage. Rousey beat Gomes in :25 with an armbar in 2011. Ortiz said it was impossible for her to get to 145, and had her weigh in at the press conference and she weighed 160. People were questioning Ortizs decision making. He said they were talking with UFC about a four-fight deal which would be UFC paying Cyborg and having her under contract, they agreed to three fights in Invicta and then the fourth fight would be against Rousey at 140. Two days later, White said he wanted an eight-fight deal and wouldnt commit to a fight with Rousey in the contract at 140. Ortiz said why would he agree to an eight-fight deal when the promoter called her irrelevant and how she didnt want to fight Rousey. So he said instead of an eight-fight deal with no guarantees for a championship fight, he signed a three-fight deal for her that guaranteed a title match in the second fight. Ortiz said the Rousey vs. Cyborg fight will still happen because the demand will be so high for it. I think both sides dont realize the value of Cyborg beating women on UFC television, such as FOX, in building that fight vs. Invicta on iPPV viewed by a few thousand people.
Here are the latest when it comes to ticket sales. The 3/3 show at the Saitama Super Arena (3/2 U.S. air date headlined by Wanderlei Silva vs. Brian Stann) has sold 10,000 tickets for $1.3 million. The 3/16 show in Montreal has sold 13,500 tickets for $3 million (GSP vs. Nick Diaz). The 4/6 show in Stockholm (Alexander Gustafsson vs. Gegard Mousasi, which really speaks volumes about Gustafsson being a star since its the second time in and they did their second straight first day sellout) has 13,000 paid (15,000 total out) for $2.5 million. 4/27 in Newark, NJ (Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen) has sold 8,500 for $1.7 million which I would call disappointing at this point given the main event, but its still more than two months away.
Regarding UFC in New York, things are in a weird state. A judge heard UFCs lawsuit against the state of New York, trying to get a court ruling that them not being able to run in the state is a first amendment freedom of expression violation. The judge essentially ruled if UFC can get a sanctioning body, he believed they should be able to run shows. Right now, UFC is still gunning for no questions or ambiguity. What the judge ruled they could do would be run essentially a show sanctioned by a sanctioning body with a license (like a karate organization), but the show wouldnt be sanctioned by the New York State Athletic Commission, nor would they have to pay athletic commission taxes. Its not something UFC wants to do, because it goes against them being sanctioned by commissions in commission states. Their goal is to get the law banning MMA in the state repealed the legislative process and run commission-sanctioned shows. There is another meeting on 3/8 regarding settling the lawsuit. But the ruling puts a lot of pressure on the legislative branch. Basically, it is at least conceptual UFC could run and the state wouldnt even get the usual tax revenue. The feeling right now is that both houses of the state legislature would have to pass the law by June or so if UFC would be able to run the hoped for mid-November date in Madison Square Garden.
Some notes on fights being talked about, both from Ariel Helwani on UFC Tonight and also from sources in UFC and with fighters. Tyson Woodley, who just signed a new four-fight contract on 2/18, wants a match with Jake Shields. Shields isnt opposed, but if Josh Koscheck beats Robbie Lawler on 2/23, Shields wants Koscheck.
Frankie Edgar is looking for a match with either Cub Swanson or Dennis Siver. Siver was recently asked about a fight on 5/25 in Las Vegas against Chan Sung Jung, the Korean Zombie. However, Zombie is not going to be ready due to injuries by that date. UFC wants Zombie vs. Ricardo Lamas with the winner getting a shot at the upcoming Jose Aldo vs. Anthony Pettis winner.
White this past week said that they are looking to put together a dream match for the main event of the 20th anniversary show in November. He also mentioned that Anderson Silva (who has not signed the 10-year contract although both sides say they are close on the deal) told him he could get to 170 pounds.
There's been an almost unspoken, but underlying theme, ever since it was announced that the main event on UFC 157 would be Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche.
The decision was questioned from the onset. Some people were mad UFC was opening its doors to women, particularly since Dana White had said for years that it would never happen. Some were mad UFC has put its full promotional muscle behind Rousey. Some were mad Rousey was getting more media attention than all but the top few fighters in the sport. Some were mad that women are headlining a show, in particular over Dan Henderson, an all-time great fighter (the irony here is that Henderson, when asked, has not only had no problem, but has made it clear he's happy his fight is three rounds instead of five and that his fight has only gotten a small fraction of the general public attention as the main event).
Some are mad that the first woman's fight in UFC history was put on pay-per-view, rather than free television, treating it like UFC somehow has a gun pointed to people's head when it produces shows, forcing them to spend $45 and that watching this show is akin to taking what they expect to be bad tasting medicine. Some questioned the choice of Carmouche, almost a complete unknown, best known for putting up a good fight, winning the first three rounds, before losing via submission in the fourth as a last minute replacement in a Strikeforce title match against Marloes Coenen two years ago.
It's already been proven with Rousey and Gina Carano that women can draw television ratings. Carano vs. Cris "Cyborg" Santos proved that the right woman's main event can sell a lot of tickets. But that's the only woman's fight in history to really prove that. And pay-per-view is uncharted water when it comes to women being able to draw in any combat sport. I have little doubt Carano vs. Cyborg, had it been promoted at the time by UFC, would have been a strong success on PPV, given that the show did the highest rating for a full show (2.17) in the history of Showtimes MMA.
But Carano was a unique individual. While Rousey has gotten more media attention in a short period of time and is a more skilled fighter, she does not have the unique connection that comes across on television that Carano had. But she just as clearly has far more than any other female fighter to date.
There is no show in UFC history where there is a percentage of people who claim to be UFC fans, perhaps not a large percentage but one that is very vocal, who so badly want to see it fail. UFC has put on plenty of main events over the years that people knew in advance probably weren't going to do great numbers, or shows that had slow ticket sales. Advance ticket sales have picked up greatly in the past two weeks. As of late last week, they had sold 10,000 tickets for $1.2 million and that was before the major media was hitting. If the last week continues at this pace, with the normal level of comps, they will sell out, and at worst will end up just shy. They are now well ahead of the pace of the prior show in the market.
Los Angeles has been a tough market for UFC, even though ratings are strong. Several UFC shows have done strong last week sales to the Hispanic community. The lack of a Hispanic headliner here may play a factor in that regard, but its very clear there is major momentum locally, with the show selling 3,000 tickets for $400,000 between the airing of the first and second Prime Time show.
But the advance numbers from more than a month ago got far more attention and were treated as failure far more than shows with male champions that were on course to do significantly lower. Considering they only sold 4,000 tickets the first weekend, and traditionally UFC does most of its sales right away, and PPV is a late impulse buy, that could indicate a strong showing on Saturday. But with women, its still a very different dynamic. Only one womans fight in history has done well on PPV, the Laila Ali vs. Jacqui Frazier-Lye match billed as Ali vs. Frazier IV, in 2001, which did 125,000 buys. That number was considered shockingly high at the time. But even though Christy Martin got similar publicity to Rousey as a media darling in boxing, she was always used as a preliminary attraction underneath the major stars on boxing PPV shows and the attempts to headline with her failed. Ali, who had both the look and the golden last name, never really captured peoples attention as a main eventer except the ultimate gimmick match against Joe Fraziers daughter.
But the ticket buying pattern in the Los Angeles market looks like there is good momentum for a fight that at the start there was very limited interest in. But guaranteed, if the show does well on PPV, there are scores of people who will then try to credit it to Henderson.
In episode two of UFC Prime Time building up the fight, Rousey for the first time noted this hatred, ugliness that borders on the response Hank Aaron got in another generation for being a black man about to beat a legendary white icon's home run record. Dana White yesterday in England acknowledged it existed, but believed it was starting to turn around.
With Aaron, it was tens of thousands of racist letters. Today, with social media, even if the numbers aren't anywhere near as big because the issue pales in comparison as a story, they are harder to escape and ignore.
"There's so many times I want to be like, fuck it, I don't want to do this anymore," she said in the close of the show about her fighting career. "I don't want to wake up, open my phone, and see that someone says that they're happy my dad died because I'm a slutty piece of shit. I see it every day.
"I don't know how you're supposed to retain any kind of faith in people when you have to deal with that all the time."
As with the first episode, Rousey was clearly portrayed as the star. The final scene where that unspoken theme of this event comes out publicly for the first time, ends up as the lasting memory. Whether Rousey is happy about it may be another story.
Rousey herself, noted at a press call this week that she wasn't thrilled with the final scene of the first show, in tears, opening up about the death of her father when she was eight years old. That close made the show perhaps the most praised fight buildup shows UFC has ever produced.
"Those interviews, a lot of times, they go on for hours and they, it's like an interrogation, they try to wear you down and get you emotional. They're really good at what they do.
"And there's just been a lot of media, and it just got to the point where there were so many people asking questions like that. I think they do it in a very calculated way. Like first, they ask you to think of the good memories, and stuff like that, and then it just brings you back where you recount the good stuff and then they immediately jump to the hard questions. And I finally got to the point where I was just really fed up with being asked to recount that over-and-over. I really feel like that's the final time I'm ever going to talk about the way that my father died. And I felt like since it was the last time I was going to say it, then I was going to tell the story the best way that I could."
But also like last week, until that point, Carmouche comes across as the more compelling character. She comes across incredibly likeable on camera, always smiling, and treating her lifestyle like an open book for the viewer to digest.
Carmouche spent more than five years in the U.S. Marines, including three tours of Iraq, where, among other things, she worked as an aviation electrician. She also excelled in their martial arts program. But she lived in fear the entire time, since homosexuality in the military was not tolerated at the time.
"It was really difficult being in the Marine Corps, I wanted to come out," she said. "I wanted to be able to openly embrace it and I couldn't do that. I don't know how many people knew 100 percent I was gay, but there were people that suspected.
"It was really very difficult. It was humiliating. It was embarrassing. I always felt like I had knots in my stomach looking over my shoulder wondering if somebody's going to bust me."
But she even talks of that as being a positive.
"I'm grateful for the experience, because it made me stronger and it made me who I am today."
For Rousey, this fight is a different kind of "coming out" party. She's expected to win. Time, HBO, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and others have followed her training for major features that came or are coming out this week.
Still, the second episode leaves one with a few questions. In training at Big Bear, shes working heavily on boxing. But her bread-and-butter is judo. Watching the career arc of Demian Maia, one of MMAs best grapplers who was a weak striker, then went all out learning striking without working as much on his takedowns and submissions, stalled his career which has back on the fast track since hes concentrated on what he does best.
The other involves her nutritionist. Apparently staying within shooting distance of 135 isnt easy for Rousey, who competed at 154 in judo (the number is misleading as a direct comparison since judo does same day weight-ins) at the Olympics and had competed as heavy as the 171 pound class at times. She only eats one meal a day, dinner, and only eats carbohydrates every other day. That one meal thing may have worked for Herschel Walker, and low carbs may be great for a bodybuilder, a model, or someone trying to lose weight quickly, but its not healthy and makes no sense for an athlete preparing to fight, or someone using their brain to learn new techniques. In addition, her nutritionist had her fasting one day a week.
But for Carmouche, who lives a hand-to-mouth existence, waking up at 6 a.m. to get her training in while working 14 hour days at the San Diego Combat Club, it's more pragmatic.
If she does well financially in this fight, or overcomes to the 12-to-1 odds and wins the championship, she can buy herself a kitchen table, and perhaps some furniture, which she doesn't own, get a less beat-up car, and buy a home in Hillcrest, a gay community in San Diego. A win will allow her to bring her mom in from Mexico.
She has encountered ugliness of a very different kind than Rousey, who has gotten the brunt of the fan hatred because of how much publicity she's received. Portrayed as a sex symbol today, it wasn't that many years ago when she was winning international judo competitions, but in high school, she was nicknamed "Miss Man," because of her muscular body and Cauliflower ears, which are now completely hidden from view, except when shes fighting or training, due to her long hair.
For Carmouche, she moved from Oceanside, where she felt her lifestyle wasn't accepted, to move to a community that she really couldn't afford to live in, because it's a haven for the area's gay community.
She hasn't gotten the spotlight, but if it comes, she's more than happy to embrace it.
"I'm proud to be who I am," said Carmouche. "I want to be that person for everyone else to look up to. It's something that I'm proud of. I wear a rainbow mouthpiece, a rainbow sports bra. It shows that I'm all about showing I'm proud to be who I am and I've overcome my difficulties and I want people to think they can do the same. It's just a matter of giving everything you have."
Official numbers for UFC 157 on 2/2 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, which was the Jose Aldo Jr. vs. Frankie Edgar fight, was 7,136 paid, 3,139 comps for a total attendance of 10,275 and a gate of $2,437,150. There were 548 empty seats.
The scheduled for UFC 157 on 2/23 in Anaheim is it will open with Facebook fights at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, with Nah-Shon Burrell vs. Yuri Villefort, Neil Magny vs. Jon Manley and Brock Jardine vs. Kenny Robertson. On FX at 8 p.m. is Caros Fodor vs. Sam Stout in a Strikeforce veteran vs. UFC match, Dennis Bermudez vs. Matt Grice, Former TUF winner Michael Chiesa vs. Anton Kuivanen and the FX main event is a heavyweight battle with Brendan Schaub vs. Lavar Johnson. The PPV has Court McGee vs. Josh Neer, Josh Koscheck vs. Robbie Lawler, Urijah Faber vs. Ivan Menjivar, Dan Henderson vs. Lyoto Machida and Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche for the womens bantamweight title.
UFC released Cris Cyborg from her contract. On paper, it looks like Tito Ortiz managed her right out of the biggest fight of her career, but theres clearly more going on than meets the eye. She refused to cut to 135, and they refused to add a 145 pound weight class. She had her doctor send UFC a note that if she tried to cut to 135 she could die. I wonder where all the doctors who warn her about dying and not being able to have kids were when she was filling herself with steroids and changing herself from a world class handball player at a peak athletic weight of 135 to 140 pounds where she looked like a female athlete as opposed to a competitive female bodybuilder. UFC wanted Cyborg to sign a new eight-fight contract, but Ortiz didnt want her signing for so long. UFC released her to sign with Invicta, where she signed a three-fight deal that gives her the right to go to UFC at any time. White had earlier all but brokered a deal where he would send Cyborg to fight in Invicta, pay her contract money to get her fights before the Rousey fight and to keep her busy before she was able to get her weight down. Shannon Knapp of Invicta agreed, and then Tito Ortiz came in, asked for Cyborg to be released, she was, and she signed with Invicta. When Ortiz announced her signing a three-fight deal with Invicta, instead of talking about opponent Ediane Gomes, or champion Marloes Coenen (neither were mentioned once by either Ortiz or Cyborg at least on the televised portion of the press conference), all she and Ortiz talked about was a future fight with Rousey. If you watched the press conference on television (it aired on AXS TV), the only way you would know about who her opponent was would be when they unveiled a poster for the show. A photo of Gomes, who almost nobody would know, was on the poster, as was her name. On the poster, at the bottom, it read live only on pay per view, even though PPV was never mentioned by anyone at the press conference either. From what Im told, they are trying to negotiate a live PPV, which is a big financial risk. The deal is not completed. It would go head-to-head with a TNA taped PPV and be the same weekend as WrestleMania. Nobody has been able to pull off PPV successfully in MMA except UFC, and there have been groups that have run with a lot bigger names than Cyborg that have failed. The idea of this show as a live PPV with the costs involved a very risky deal. As for iPPV, with the costs being low, they could do it without losing money, but they wont make a lot off it either. Invicta did an iPPV for its last show but there was a transmission issue and Knapp then allowed everyone to watch it for free and refunded everyones money. The claim was it was the most people who up to that point had ordered an iPPV through Ustream. Cyborg was there wearing a T-shirt that read Ronda will be my bitch, (a takeoff on Ortiz wearing a T-shirt Gay Mezger is my bitch after he had beaten Guy Mezger in a fight in the late 90s). This made no sense at a press conference where they were announcing the signing of her to Invicta. Cyborg vs. Gomes will be on the 4/5 Invicta show from the Ameristar Casino and Hotel in Kansas City, with the winner going against Coenen for their 145 pound title on the following card. Cyborg beat Coenen in 2009 to keep her Strikeforce 145 title by being too strong for her at the time and winning by third round stoppage. Rousey beat Gomes in :25 with an armbar in 2011. Ortiz said it was impossible for her to get to 145, and had her weigh in at the press conference and she weighed 160. People were questioning Ortizs decision making. He said they were talking with UFC about a four-fight deal which would be UFC paying Cyborg and having her under contract, they agreed to three fights in Invicta and then the fourth fight would be against Rousey at 140. Two days later, White said he wanted an eight-fight deal and wouldnt commit to a fight with Rousey in the contract at 140. Ortiz said why would he agree to an eight-fight deal when the promoter called her irrelevant and how she didnt want to fight Rousey. So he said instead of an eight-fight deal with no guarantees for a championship fight, he signed a three-fight deal for her that guaranteed a title match in the second fight. Ortiz said the Rousey vs. Cyborg fight will still happen because the demand will be so high for it. I think both sides dont realize the value of Cyborg beating women on UFC television, such as FOX, in building that fight vs. Invicta on iPPV viewed by a few thousand people.
Here are the latest when it comes to ticket sales. The 3/3 show at the Saitama Super Arena (3/2 U.S. air date headlined by Wanderlei Silva vs. Brian Stann) has sold 10,000 tickets for $1.3 million. The 3/16 show in Montreal has sold 13,500 tickets for $3 million (GSP vs. Nick Diaz). The 4/6 show in Stockholm (Alexander Gustafsson vs. Gegard Mousasi, which really speaks volumes about Gustafsson being a star since its the second time in and they did their second straight first day sellout) has 13,000 paid (15,000 total out) for $2.5 million. 4/27 in Newark, NJ (Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen) has sold 8,500 for $1.7 million which I would call disappointing at this point given the main event, but its still more than two months away.
Regarding UFC in New York, things are in a weird state. A judge heard UFCs lawsuit against the state of New York, trying to get a court ruling that them not being able to run in the state is a first amendment freedom of expression violation. The judge essentially ruled if UFC can get a sanctioning body, he believed they should be able to run shows. Right now, UFC is still gunning for no questions or ambiguity. What the judge ruled they could do would be run essentially a show sanctioned by a sanctioning body with a license (like a karate organization), but the show wouldnt be sanctioned by the New York State Athletic Commission, nor would they have to pay athletic commission taxes. Its not something UFC wants to do, because it goes against them being sanctioned by commissions in commission states. Their goal is to get the law banning MMA in the state repealed the legislative process and run commission-sanctioned shows. There is another meeting on 3/8 regarding settling the lawsuit. But the ruling puts a lot of pressure on the legislative branch. Basically, it is at least conceptual UFC could run and the state wouldnt even get the usual tax revenue. The feeling right now is that both houses of the state legislature would have to pass the law by June or so if UFC would be able to run the hoped for mid-November date in Madison Square Garden.
Some notes on fights being talked about, both from Ariel Helwani on UFC Tonight and also from sources in UFC and with fighters. Tyson Woodley, who just signed a new four-fight contract on 2/18, wants a match with Jake Shields. Shields isnt opposed, but if Josh Koscheck beats Robbie Lawler on 2/23, Shields wants Koscheck.
Frankie Edgar is looking for a match with either Cub Swanson or Dennis Siver. Siver was recently asked about a fight on 5/25 in Las Vegas against Chan Sung Jung, the Korean Zombie. However, Zombie is not going to be ready due to injuries by that date. UFC wants Zombie vs. Ricardo Lamas with the winner getting a shot at the upcoming Jose Aldo vs. Anthony Pettis winner.
White this past week said that they are looking to put together a dream match for the main event of the 20th anniversary show in November. He also mentioned that Anderson Silva (who has not signed the 10-year contract although both sides say they are close on the deal) told him he could get to 170 pounds.
Can Crusher
Banned
I want to hear from the gaming side "insiders" who said 8 gigs of gddr5 was impossible. "TRUST MY SOURCES!"
So fuckin shiny.
Can't wait until MS tries to sell their Toys R Us machine to the hardcore. Oh but we have kinect
Can Crusher
Banned
Just saw TUF. AHAHAHA fuck you bitch, Chael couldn't believe it lol
polyh3dron
Banned
Yup Bubba is this season's Pink Mohawk guy. Lots of bluster, but looks shitty in the cage.
Can Crusher
Banned
Yeah, Naughty Dog is gonna make something that will at least look very special.
TheKaeptain
Banned
Oh shit I just out class. Good show Sony. Good show.
I never did get the appeal of Uncharted. I hope Naughty Dog is doing something different for the ps4.
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