Eh, in spite of it, 0 game.
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MMA-GAF |OT5| Father Time Is Undefeated
- Thread starter polyh3dron
- Start date
Maklershed
Member
Supposed to snow like crazy here Thursday night into Friday. Already put a leave slip in for Friday. Aint nobody got time for that.
Lambda Pie
Banned
new year, new life. hope you don't mind me posting here once in awhile.
Meccanical
Member
I had Buffalo Wild Wings before.
Pretty good.
Pretty good.
BigJonsson
Member
Huh
Sportsnet is showing the Asian card on Saturday at 9am, I thought it was only on Fight Pass?
Canada is best country for MMA coverage
Sportsnet is showing the Asian card on Saturday at 9am, I thought it was only on Fight Pass?
Canada is best country for MMA coverage
AstroZombie
Banned
Yea its pretty homoerotic. You gonna tell him?
A
A More Normal Bird
Unconfirmed Member
Damage is in the scoring criteria but it seems unless someone's getting rocked or doubled over it mostly goes unnoticed.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Rafa=FedKilla
Banned
Does fight pass have a VoD option? Knowing the UFC they would have the fight results plastered anyway....
Lambda Pie
Banned
Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2013
De Fries vs Rogers
Aoki vs Harada
Ikuhisa Minowa vs Atsushi Sawada
all in one video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx6NLB5KJbU
De Fries vs Rogers
Aoki vs Harada
Ikuhisa Minowa vs Atsushi Sawada
all in one video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx6NLB5KJbU
each time I watch it, my oppinion changes to a different guy winning. I've settled on a tie, with Jones keeping the belt so what happened is close enough for me.
They're really blocking this from TV in the US...oh UFC.
I wonder how Fox is liking that.
When the UFC called David Galera, the unknown fighter thought, Why me?
No, this isn't an Onion article. The pinnacle of our so-called sport: A Buffalo Wild Wings cook and a guy who doesn't even know why he's signed.
No, this isn't an Onion article. The pinnacle of our so-called sport: A Buffalo Wild Wings cook and a guy who doesn't even know why he's signed.
Ninja Scooter
Member
GAF ads keep wanting me to buy Bob Seger's greatest hits off iTunes....and I just might do it.
slightconfuse
Banned
Jones/Gustafson is on. FS1 right now
The card is on Netflix Canada.
Host Samurai
Member
Anybody actually going to get this Fight Pass?
Nice, also nice to see De Fries with a beard and a win.
DKehoe
Member
Jest Chillin
Member
Dana would have no problem signing Ben if he agreed to the same amount of money these regional fighters are taking but there's no way that Ben would sell himself that short. And judging by his fighting style, UFC fans aren't really missing out on anything without Ben on the roster.
dream
Member
Anderson Silva, perhaps the greatest MMA fighter of all-time, was carried from the Octagon on a stretcher after suffering a compound fracture of his lower leg in losing via second round stoppage for the second time to Chris Weidman.
Silva, 38, had publicly hinted of retirement before the match, and had privately told his camp before the fight that should he beat Weidman and regain the title, that he would retire.
The injury was one of the two most visibly ghastly injuries in UFC history, as it appeared Silvas leg from just above the ankle was severed in two. Corey Hill suffered a similar injury in UFC competition, and did return to fight 13 months later, but was never the same. The injury brought up comparisons to Joe Theismann and Sid Vicious, who both made mention on Twitter and Facebook of it. Theismann never played again. Vicious did wrestle again, but not for several years, and was very limited in what he could do.
Silva suffered both a broken tibia and fibula slightly above the ankle when Weidman checked a low kick, essentially using his knee to block the kick. While some would call this a freak accident and say Weidman once again didnt prove to be better than Silva, that may have been accurate in the first fight. That wasnt the case here.
The move that ended the fight was something Weidman and trainer Ray Longo had been practicing constantly since the first fight. In that bout, the only thing Silva did that caused Weidman problems was using low kicks to open up Weidman for punches. While Silva has great reflexes, in straight boxing he is not that good without the threat of the low kick in place.
In the first round, Weidman knocked Silva down with a punch and was pounding him into the ground. It appeared Silva was knocked out briefly, but a second Weidman punch woke him up. Silva was in trouble, and in a lesser fight, it could have been stopped, but he regained his bearings quickly and was able to tie Weidman up. Still, Weidman remained on top, trying can opener necklocks, landing elbows and hard punches and working for a forearm choke.
Silvas left leg appeared injured, and those in his camp believed that he may have broken his leg originally when Weidman checked a kick in the first round, before it snapped in two early in the second round, and he collapsed on the mat.
Silva was stabilized in the ring, and taken out on a stretcher. Backstage, he was screaming in terrible pain. He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and they did surgery that night, inserting a titanium rod into his left tibia, with a screw inserted just below the knee joint, and two screws just above the ankle to keep the rod in place.
Dr. Steven Sanders, who did the one hour surgery, said that Silvas age would be of no bearing when it comes to the bone healing process, which he estimated at three to six months. After that, there would also be soft tissue healing that would be needed, and he would have to begin rehab. Sanders estimated that it would be six to nine months before Silva could start training. He also noted that it was extremely close to being something far worse. It was a clean break with no bone fragments, meaning easier clean-up. If the bone had stuck through the skin, the possibility for infection would have been higher. If there had been damage to arteries in the break, there would have been a chance an amputation would have been necessary. Silva was in tremendous pain after surgery, but was released from the hospital a few days later. He has made no statements about whether he would consider fighting again, but given the injury and his age, there is a good chance his career is over. If not, hes highly unlikely to get another championship fight for a long time.
Anderson is deeply touched by the outpouring of support from his fans and the entire MMA community, wrote UFC officials. There has been no immediate decision about his future, and he would kindly ask for privacy at this time as he deals with his injury and prepare to return home to recover.
The injury was a very somber ending to what otherwise was a home run from both an atmospheric, fight quality and business aspect. UFC 168 on 12/28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena from all accounts appears to have been one of the biggest shows in company history.
But it also means that UFC starts 2014 for the first year in history with absolutely nothing on the horizon that would appear to be a huge fight. If 2013 is any indication, there will be plenty of good fights. But huge fights, like Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz or Johny Hendricks, Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman, Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate, or Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen, there is nothing there right now. The companys two biggest draws, St-Pierre and Silva are both gone for a while, and in Silvas case, likely all year if he even decides to come back. The idea of the big superfight at a stadium is gone with Silva out of commission, since he was the key guy for either Jon Jones or St-Pierre. Even Jones vs. Cain Velasquez is almost surely not happening until 2015, since Velasquez will be out of action until late in the year after shoulder surgery.
The closest thing to a big fight is Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson, and that is contingent on Jones beating Glover Teixeira and Gustafsson beating Jimi Manuwa. And even a best case scenario has that fight in the late summer. And its also a fight that only did 310,000 buys the first time around.
As improbable as this would have sounded a year ago, UFC enters 2014 with Rousey as clearly its biggest star. But she also doesnt have the right opponent. Even before beating Tate in the semifinal, Rousey was asked and agreed to defend her womens bantamweight title against Sara McMann on 2/22 in Las Vegas.
Thats a quick turnaround. But, that show needed a main event. McMann won the silver medal in wrestling at the 2004 Olympics in the 139 pound weight class and is now 7-0 as a pro. With Rousey having won a bronze medal at 154 pounds in judo in 2008, this would be UFCs first fight, male or female, matching up two Olympic medalists. The fight, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, would come right at the end of the Winter Olympics, which is a good hook for it garnering mainstream media and attention. That show will also feature Daniel Cormier vs. Rashad Evans. A match with Gilbert Melendez vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov was on a UFC poster for the event and confirmed by UFC on 12/28, only to have Dana White tweet a few days later that it wasnt a done deal.
Weidmans next title defense will be against Vitor Belfort, in a battle of the two leading candidates for in-cage fighter of the year. During 2013, Weidman finished Silva twice. Belfort went 3-0, with three head kick knockouts against tough guys. He was the second person ever to finish Luke Rockhold, the second to ever finish Michael Bisping, and the first to ever knock out Dan Henderson.
That fight opens up a hornets nest of issues, because Belfort, fighting in Brazil, has been approved for testosterone replacement therapy, which appears to have played a hand in an incredible career turnaround. Belfort went 2-5 between the ages of 27 and 29, when one would normally hit their peak. And the two wins were against former pro wrestler Yoshiki Takahashi, who by that time was long past his fighting prime, and unknown British fighter Anthony Rea.
Now, at 36, with 18 years of mileage on his body, hes destroying top ten guys like they were nothing. If the fight is earmarked for Brazil, there will be a lot of controversy at UFC with the idea they are protecting Belfort from commissions that may not allow his testosterone use based on testing positive for steroids in the past. If its booked for the U.S., there will be tremendous pressure on commissions to balance fairness, criticism and the obvious financial benefit to their state of having the fight.
No PPV numbers are available at the moment, but early signs are they will be big. Because of the holidays, nobody had anything close to concrete numbers, but the DirecTV numbers were big enough that UFC officials were said to be thrilled. One cable system in the U.S. I got numbers from indicated that they more than doubled their numbers from UFC 167, the GSP vs. Hendricks fight that ended up doing about 630,000 buys. A Canadian source indicated numbers only slightly below UFC 167.
The weigh-in on FS 1 did 275,000 viewers at 7 p.m. Eastern. It was the all-time record for most viewers of a UFC weigh-in since leaving Spike. However, thats misleading, because weigh-ins are usually on FS 2 and often in the afternoon. The number for GSP vs. Nick Diaz on 3/15, which was 215,000 viewers, was far more impressive since it was at 4 p.m. on a station in less than half as many homes.
While it would be impossible to get statistics on this, the belief was that the attendance at sports bars was the largest in recent memory. We received reports from around the country from people noting places were packed hours before the PPV started and lines were out the door. One person in Los Angeles told us he went from place to place all over town, all packed, before giving up and ordering it at home. At Buffalo Wild Wings, the event was the prime event at almost all locations, which doesnt sound significant, except it went head-to-head with the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl.
The show drew a sellout 15,650 fans at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, a record for a UFC event in its home arena, and a $6.2 million gate, the latter being the third largest in company history, trailing only UFC 129 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, and UFC 148, also at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which was the second Silva vs. Chael Sonnen fight. That number doesnt include closed circuit locations in Las Vegas for the overflow.
The prelims on FS 1 did 1,554,000 viewers, making it the fifth most watched show since the launch of the station in August, and second biggest UFC number, trailing only the Sonnen vs. Shogun Rua debut show on the network on 8/17. For a comparison, the prelims for UFC 167, the GSP vs. Hendricks fight, did 998,000 viewers. The prelims for UFC 166, the Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos fight, did 628,000 viewers. The TV main event, pitting Chris Leben in what is likely his final UFC appearance losing to Uriah Hall, did 1,869,000 viewers.
The post-fight show did 313,000 viewers, a record. The UFC Flashback special at 7:30 p.m., an incredible production built around the first Weidman vs. Silva fight, did 412,000 viewers, making it the highest rated replay of a UFC television show since moving to FS 1. Thats impressive since the original airing did 156,000 viewers on 12/22, and the Christmas Eve replay did 168,000 viewers.
In Brazil, a one hour special airing Rousey vs. Tate and Weidman vs. Silva drew 10 million viewers on Globo, airing on tape delay starting at 2:40 a.m. Saturday night. UFC big shows featuring Silva and other Brazilian stars like Jose Aldo or Junior Dos Santos on Globo, airing four times per year, averaged more than 20 million viewers in 2011, 13 million in 2012 but were down to 6.5 million this year. Globo had heavily promoted the show, calling it the most important fight of the year with a lot of commercials airing during their prime time programming. When they do the shows, Globo never advertises a starting time, meaning you have to tune in around 2 a.m. and wait for it to start. Because of that, the usual late night programming on UFC nights that precede UFC usually doubles in ratings. Globo is the dominant station in Brazil the way nothing in the U.S. or Canada is, and is the second largest television network in the world when it comes to revenue.
Google searches, which are usually spot on when it comes to predicting PPV numbers (as in usually within 25,000 of the final number), were through the roof. Because Silvas broken leg and the graphic nature of it became such a major story, this would be the exception to that rule.
There were more than 5 million searches for UFC related topics on Saturday night. At least 2 million specifically mentioned Silvas broken leg. However, throwing out Silva related mentions, the number was still more than double that of UFC 167, and the numbers were way above the usual show even while the show was in progress, exploding right after the finish of the Rousey vs. Tate match, which would not be related to injury, or the main event.
Few UFC shows hit 500,000 searches and most are around 200,000. 5 million was identical to Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez, and the highest sports total of the year for 2013, the Super Bowl, was 10 million. While after the show, Silva was clearly the story, but before the fight, even though Weidman and Silva were all over the late advertising, there was more interest in Rousey and Tate. As far as who drew the house, it was Silva. As far as who drew the PPV and packed the locations, it was a combination of both fights, but reports from every place were that the people were there for the women more than the men. All indicators showed more interest in the womens fight than the mens with Rousey and Tate almost even, Silva slightly behind and Weidman trailing the other three greatly. By Monday, due to the injury, Silva was the person people were most interested in, but Rouseys name was far stronger than Tate coming out of the fight, and Weidman was still behind Tate even after being Silva twice.
In addition, UFC web site traffic leading into the show was at all-time record levels.
In Brazil, Silvas injury was gigantic news. Silva has been the commercial darling in the country in recent years. Hes all over billboards and television commercials. While his stardom did decline after losing the championship, he was still behind only the biggest soccer stars and old-time soccer legends when it comes to star power in the country.
Silva, 38, had publicly hinted of retirement before the match, and had privately told his camp before the fight that should he beat Weidman and regain the title, that he would retire.
The injury was one of the two most visibly ghastly injuries in UFC history, as it appeared Silvas leg from just above the ankle was severed in two. Corey Hill suffered a similar injury in UFC competition, and did return to fight 13 months later, but was never the same. The injury brought up comparisons to Joe Theismann and Sid Vicious, who both made mention on Twitter and Facebook of it. Theismann never played again. Vicious did wrestle again, but not for several years, and was very limited in what he could do.
Silva suffered both a broken tibia and fibula slightly above the ankle when Weidman checked a low kick, essentially using his knee to block the kick. While some would call this a freak accident and say Weidman once again didnt prove to be better than Silva, that may have been accurate in the first fight. That wasnt the case here.
The move that ended the fight was something Weidman and trainer Ray Longo had been practicing constantly since the first fight. In that bout, the only thing Silva did that caused Weidman problems was using low kicks to open up Weidman for punches. While Silva has great reflexes, in straight boxing he is not that good without the threat of the low kick in place.
In the first round, Weidman knocked Silva down with a punch and was pounding him into the ground. It appeared Silva was knocked out briefly, but a second Weidman punch woke him up. Silva was in trouble, and in a lesser fight, it could have been stopped, but he regained his bearings quickly and was able to tie Weidman up. Still, Weidman remained on top, trying can opener necklocks, landing elbows and hard punches and working for a forearm choke.
Silvas left leg appeared injured, and those in his camp believed that he may have broken his leg originally when Weidman checked a kick in the first round, before it snapped in two early in the second round, and he collapsed on the mat.
Silva was stabilized in the ring, and taken out on a stretcher. Backstage, he was screaming in terrible pain. He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and they did surgery that night, inserting a titanium rod into his left tibia, with a screw inserted just below the knee joint, and two screws just above the ankle to keep the rod in place.
Dr. Steven Sanders, who did the one hour surgery, said that Silvas age would be of no bearing when it comes to the bone healing process, which he estimated at three to six months. After that, there would also be soft tissue healing that would be needed, and he would have to begin rehab. Sanders estimated that it would be six to nine months before Silva could start training. He also noted that it was extremely close to being something far worse. It was a clean break with no bone fragments, meaning easier clean-up. If the bone had stuck through the skin, the possibility for infection would have been higher. If there had been damage to arteries in the break, there would have been a chance an amputation would have been necessary. Silva was in tremendous pain after surgery, but was released from the hospital a few days later. He has made no statements about whether he would consider fighting again, but given the injury and his age, there is a good chance his career is over. If not, hes highly unlikely to get another championship fight for a long time.
Anderson is deeply touched by the outpouring of support from his fans and the entire MMA community, wrote UFC officials. There has been no immediate decision about his future, and he would kindly ask for privacy at this time as he deals with his injury and prepare to return home to recover.
The injury was a very somber ending to what otherwise was a home run from both an atmospheric, fight quality and business aspect. UFC 168 on 12/28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena from all accounts appears to have been one of the biggest shows in company history.
But it also means that UFC starts 2014 for the first year in history with absolutely nothing on the horizon that would appear to be a huge fight. If 2013 is any indication, there will be plenty of good fights. But huge fights, like Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz or Johny Hendricks, Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman, Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate, or Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen, there is nothing there right now. The companys two biggest draws, St-Pierre and Silva are both gone for a while, and in Silvas case, likely all year if he even decides to come back. The idea of the big superfight at a stadium is gone with Silva out of commission, since he was the key guy for either Jon Jones or St-Pierre. Even Jones vs. Cain Velasquez is almost surely not happening until 2015, since Velasquez will be out of action until late in the year after shoulder surgery.
The closest thing to a big fight is Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson, and that is contingent on Jones beating Glover Teixeira and Gustafsson beating Jimi Manuwa. And even a best case scenario has that fight in the late summer. And its also a fight that only did 310,000 buys the first time around.
As improbable as this would have sounded a year ago, UFC enters 2014 with Rousey as clearly its biggest star. But she also doesnt have the right opponent. Even before beating Tate in the semifinal, Rousey was asked and agreed to defend her womens bantamweight title against Sara McMann on 2/22 in Las Vegas.
Thats a quick turnaround. But, that show needed a main event. McMann won the silver medal in wrestling at the 2004 Olympics in the 139 pound weight class and is now 7-0 as a pro. With Rousey having won a bronze medal at 154 pounds in judo in 2008, this would be UFCs first fight, male or female, matching up two Olympic medalists. The fight, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, would come right at the end of the Winter Olympics, which is a good hook for it garnering mainstream media and attention. That show will also feature Daniel Cormier vs. Rashad Evans. A match with Gilbert Melendez vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov was on a UFC poster for the event and confirmed by UFC on 12/28, only to have Dana White tweet a few days later that it wasnt a done deal.
Weidmans next title defense will be against Vitor Belfort, in a battle of the two leading candidates for in-cage fighter of the year. During 2013, Weidman finished Silva twice. Belfort went 3-0, with three head kick knockouts against tough guys. He was the second person ever to finish Luke Rockhold, the second to ever finish Michael Bisping, and the first to ever knock out Dan Henderson.
That fight opens up a hornets nest of issues, because Belfort, fighting in Brazil, has been approved for testosterone replacement therapy, which appears to have played a hand in an incredible career turnaround. Belfort went 2-5 between the ages of 27 and 29, when one would normally hit their peak. And the two wins were against former pro wrestler Yoshiki Takahashi, who by that time was long past his fighting prime, and unknown British fighter Anthony Rea.
Now, at 36, with 18 years of mileage on his body, hes destroying top ten guys like they were nothing. If the fight is earmarked for Brazil, there will be a lot of controversy at UFC with the idea they are protecting Belfort from commissions that may not allow his testosterone use based on testing positive for steroids in the past. If its booked for the U.S., there will be tremendous pressure on commissions to balance fairness, criticism and the obvious financial benefit to their state of having the fight.
No PPV numbers are available at the moment, but early signs are they will be big. Because of the holidays, nobody had anything close to concrete numbers, but the DirecTV numbers were big enough that UFC officials were said to be thrilled. One cable system in the U.S. I got numbers from indicated that they more than doubled their numbers from UFC 167, the GSP vs. Hendricks fight that ended up doing about 630,000 buys. A Canadian source indicated numbers only slightly below UFC 167.
The weigh-in on FS 1 did 275,000 viewers at 7 p.m. Eastern. It was the all-time record for most viewers of a UFC weigh-in since leaving Spike. However, thats misleading, because weigh-ins are usually on FS 2 and often in the afternoon. The number for GSP vs. Nick Diaz on 3/15, which was 215,000 viewers, was far more impressive since it was at 4 p.m. on a station in less than half as many homes.
While it would be impossible to get statistics on this, the belief was that the attendance at sports bars was the largest in recent memory. We received reports from around the country from people noting places were packed hours before the PPV started and lines were out the door. One person in Los Angeles told us he went from place to place all over town, all packed, before giving up and ordering it at home. At Buffalo Wild Wings, the event was the prime event at almost all locations, which doesnt sound significant, except it went head-to-head with the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl.
The show drew a sellout 15,650 fans at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, a record for a UFC event in its home arena, and a $6.2 million gate, the latter being the third largest in company history, trailing only UFC 129 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, and UFC 148, also at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which was the second Silva vs. Chael Sonnen fight. That number doesnt include closed circuit locations in Las Vegas for the overflow.
The prelims on FS 1 did 1,554,000 viewers, making it the fifth most watched show since the launch of the station in August, and second biggest UFC number, trailing only the Sonnen vs. Shogun Rua debut show on the network on 8/17. For a comparison, the prelims for UFC 167, the GSP vs. Hendricks fight, did 998,000 viewers. The prelims for UFC 166, the Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos fight, did 628,000 viewers. The TV main event, pitting Chris Leben in what is likely his final UFC appearance losing to Uriah Hall, did 1,869,000 viewers.
The post-fight show did 313,000 viewers, a record. The UFC Flashback special at 7:30 p.m., an incredible production built around the first Weidman vs. Silva fight, did 412,000 viewers, making it the highest rated replay of a UFC television show since moving to FS 1. Thats impressive since the original airing did 156,000 viewers on 12/22, and the Christmas Eve replay did 168,000 viewers.
In Brazil, a one hour special airing Rousey vs. Tate and Weidman vs. Silva drew 10 million viewers on Globo, airing on tape delay starting at 2:40 a.m. Saturday night. UFC big shows featuring Silva and other Brazilian stars like Jose Aldo or Junior Dos Santos on Globo, airing four times per year, averaged more than 20 million viewers in 2011, 13 million in 2012 but were down to 6.5 million this year. Globo had heavily promoted the show, calling it the most important fight of the year with a lot of commercials airing during their prime time programming. When they do the shows, Globo never advertises a starting time, meaning you have to tune in around 2 a.m. and wait for it to start. Because of that, the usual late night programming on UFC nights that precede UFC usually doubles in ratings. Globo is the dominant station in Brazil the way nothing in the U.S. or Canada is, and is the second largest television network in the world when it comes to revenue.
Google searches, which are usually spot on when it comes to predicting PPV numbers (as in usually within 25,000 of the final number), were through the roof. Because Silvas broken leg and the graphic nature of it became such a major story, this would be the exception to that rule.
There were more than 5 million searches for UFC related topics on Saturday night. At least 2 million specifically mentioned Silvas broken leg. However, throwing out Silva related mentions, the number was still more than double that of UFC 167, and the numbers were way above the usual show even while the show was in progress, exploding right after the finish of the Rousey vs. Tate match, which would not be related to injury, or the main event.
Few UFC shows hit 500,000 searches and most are around 200,000. 5 million was identical to Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez, and the highest sports total of the year for 2013, the Super Bowl, was 10 million. While after the show, Silva was clearly the story, but before the fight, even though Weidman and Silva were all over the late advertising, there was more interest in Rousey and Tate. As far as who drew the house, it was Silva. As far as who drew the PPV and packed the locations, it was a combination of both fights, but reports from every place were that the people were there for the women more than the men. All indicators showed more interest in the womens fight than the mens with Rousey and Tate almost even, Silva slightly behind and Weidman trailing the other three greatly. By Monday, due to the injury, Silva was the person people were most interested in, but Rouseys name was far stronger than Tate coming out of the fight, and Weidman was still behind Tate even after being Silva twice.
In addition, UFC web site traffic leading into the show was at all-time record levels.
In Brazil, Silvas injury was gigantic news. Silva has been the commercial darling in the country in recent years. Hes all over billboards and television commercials. While his stardom did decline after losing the championship, he was still behind only the biggest soccer stars and old-time soccer legends when it comes to star power in the country.
dream
Member
The UFC made its official announcement at a press conference on 12/28, just before UFC 168, of its new digital subscription service, UFC Fight Pass, which is open for business now as part of a two month free trial period.
The service will open only through the Internet at www.ufc.tv/page/fightpass and be available in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Starting on 3/1, it will be priced at $9.99 per month.
There wasnt much in the way of surprises. The channel will be focused on live coverage of a number of events throughout the year that wont be airing on U.S. television. These will be international shows aimed primarily at the local markets, using fighters from that area and airing in prime time.
While there seems to be the feeling from many that the company is running too many events, which has forced people to skip shows, and once they do so, it makes it easier to continue to do so. But UFC is battling a number of different masters. One is that there is more demand overseas for live events than the number of shows they have. Second is they want to expose and develop local stars, and to do so, that means consistently having local shows in the different markets.
The feeling is that European growth has been slow because the UFC events air live in the middle of the night, and while hardcore fanatics may watch, youre not getting the general public to sample shows at that hour.
For shows that are televised in the U.S., the former Facebook prelims are being renamed Fight Pass prelims.
There will also be international Ultimate Fighter episodes, plus old fights from Pride, WEC, Strikeforce, Affliction, WFA and more promotions.
At the press conference, Marshall Zelaznik, the UFCs Chief Content Officer, who is in charge of the project, noted that they are hopeful to clear Android, Xbox, Roku, Apple and other devices by March, as well as expand the service into Europe, hopefully at the time it becomes a pay service.
For the debut event, on 1/4 from Singapore, which starts at 6 a.m. Eastern time, there will be the availability to watch the show live, or join it in progress and viewing it from the start. Or you could pick which fights you want to see. After the event is over, it will be available on archives.
The ten fight card features mostly unknown fighters, with many making their UFC debut. The lineup has Russell Doane vs. Leandro Issa, Dustin Kimura vs. Jon Delos Reyes, Tae Hyun Bang vs. Mairbek Taisumov, David Galera vs. Royston Wee, Quinn Mulhern vs. Katsunori Kikuno, Will Chope vs. Max Holloway, Kyung Ho Kang vs. Shunichi Shimizu, Kiichi Kunimoto vs. Luiz Dutra, Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Sean Soriano and Tarec Saffiedine vs. Hyun Gyu Lim.
What is interesting is that even though Canada will have access to the show via the Internet, Sportsnet 360 will be airing the top four matches on television starting at 9 a.m., so there is duplication. It was noted that UFCs television contract in Canada and in other countries would allow them to do that, while the U.S. deal would not.
In Australia, all UFC events air on the Australian version of Fuel TV, a cable channel that focuses on UFC and also airs surfing, TNA wrestling and Motocross. They announced that the Singapore show would air live (with the time difference, it starts at 2 a.m. there).
There will also be two events in March exclusive in the U.S. to Fight Pass. One will be the 3/8 show in London headlined by Alexander Gustafsson vs. Jimi Manuwa. The second has not been announced, but the originally planned 3/1 show in Macau has yet to be talked about publicly. At the press conference, they talked about the 3/8 show being the second one on the service.
The major PPV shows will also be put on Fight Pass after a certain period of time. Right now, theyve got a number of shows, including UFC 166 (Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos III) and 167 (GSP vs. Johny Hendricks) already up. Future PPV shows will be put up after they first debut as a television product on FS 1.
On New Years Eve, Satoshi Ishii joined Kurt Angle and Henri Deglane as gold medalist who became world champion in pro wrestling.
But in the case of Ishii, he has never even done what would be considered a pro wrestling match.
In something that could only happen in Japan, Antonio Inokis Inoki Genome Federation booked its world champion, Kazuyuki Fujita, to defend against Ishii in a shoot under MMA rules. Ishii, 27, the 2008 superheavyweight gold medalist in judo, now 11-2 as a fighter, won a dull three round decision on the 12/31 show at Tokyo Sumo Hall before 6,400 fans. This was the closest thing to a continuation of the New Years Eve fighting tradition that has been around in the country since 2000.
Fujita (15-10 in MMA), 43, had not fought in MMA since being knocked out by Alistair Overeem on December 31, 2009, and had been a fixture as a pro wrestler on the IGF stage. This would be the first time the IGF title was put up in a non-worked match. Youd probably have to go back to Mildred Burke vs. June Byers in Atlanta in 1954 to when a pro wrestling world title had been up for grabs in what both participants knew ahead of time would be a shoot, as opposed to a double-cross.
The show itself was the usual for the promotion, in mixing real fighters with pro wrestlers, and having real fighters do pro wrestling and even pro wrestlers do real fighting all on the same show. Its a strange concept that most pro wrestling fans dont like, but they continue to draw better than most of the pro wrestling companies in the country.
With Ishii as champion, the title defenses may end up being shoots going forward.
The show featured four worked matches and six shoot matches. And one match was something of a mixture of both.
The semifinal was a unique mix as kickboxing legends Ray Sefo & Jerome LeBanner formed a tag team to face Naoya Ogawa, the 1992 silver medalist in judo who was a major pro wrestling star, and Shinichi Suzukawa, a former sumo turned pro wrestler. The finish saw Ogawa brawling outside the ring with Peter Aerts, the kickboxer who had just announced his Japanese retirement at the Glory show a week earlier. While Ogawa was occupied, Suzukawa was double-teamed and pinned.
The strangest match was Minowa-man, who has done pro wrestling, always billed himself as a pro wrestler when fighting in Pride and Pancrase, facing Atsushi Sawada, one of the IGFs best Japanese wrestlers. The much smaller Minowa-man knocked out Sawada, who had never fought in MMA previously, with a series of punches, notably a right hook, and a knee to the head and foot stomp (both legal in IGF shoot match rules).
After the match, the two did an obvious pro wrestling angle, with mic work and a pull-apart brawl after both head-butted each other and were pulled apart. Then, after being taken out of the ring, Sawada ran back in to attack Minowa-man while he was doing an in-ring promo.
The show also featured Shinya Aoki, the well known Japanese MMA fighter, who used a triangle to submit Toshikatsu Harada in just 49 seconds. Brett Rogers, who was once a star in Strikeforce, and faced Fedor Emelianenko once on CBS, was choked out by former UFC fighter Phil DeFries in 3:43.
Undercard pro wrestling matches included appearances by Kendo Ka Shin and Bob Sapp.
Fedor Emelianenko lost on 12/30 in Japan to Bob Sapp.
And hell didnt freeze over.
It was actually part of a celebrity 17-man arm wrestling tournament that also included UFC fighters Alistair Overeem, Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto and Mark Hunt, as well as other MMA stars well known in Japan like Kazushi Sakuraba and Kevin Randleman, as well as famous kickboxers Jerome LeBanner and Francisco Filho and pro wrestler Yoshihiro Takayama.
The tournament was mostly celebrities from the heyday of kickboxing and MMA in Japan, along with both current and retired athletes from other sports, including huge sumos.
Sapp won the tournament, beating Baruto, a 6-foot-6, 415-pound Estonian Russian, real name Kaido Hoovelson, who was a famous sumo in Japan until retiring earlier this year. Sapp beat a sumo named Aoiyama and Terry Holland, a strongest man in the world competitor from England, before beating Emelianenko in the semifinals.
Now 40, Sapp is still easily most famous foreign MMA fighter in Japan. Hes turned into a joke as a fighter in recent years as a fighter, and doesnt even headline as a pro wrestler these days, even though he was once probably the most famous American celebrity in the country.
Sapp was a cultural phenomenon a decade ago and was a huge ratings draw for years when he would fight on television, setting a number of ratings records for both MMA and kickboxing, including an audience of 56 million viewers (out of a total of 127 million people in the country) that saw his kickboxing match against Akebono, which took place ten years ago this week, on December 31, 2003.
Sapp, who still wrestles for the IGF, has gone 1-13 in kickboxing over the last eight years and 1-14 as an MMA fighter in the last four-and-a-half years after successful starts in both sports. He was most recently knocked out by retired boxer and MMA fighter Yosuke Nishijima in 2:36 of a kickboxing match on 11/17 in Kumamoto, Japan.
In his first round match, Emelianenko put the arm down of Filho, a K-1 star during the heyday.
Emelianenko next beat Hakuho, a Mongolian sumo Grand champion who is one of the biggest stars of that sport, which would make him a major celebrity in Japan. That is the equivalent of being a Hall of Famer in that sport as there have been less than 100 Grand Champions in history. He followed beating Nigerian comedian Bobby Ologun, who did a number of high-profile MMA fights on Japan's biggest shows. He then lost to Sapp in the semifinal.
The tournament was a live network special that aired in prime time on the Fuji Network in Japan. A similar tournament last year, also won by Sapp, who beat Overeem in the finals, was a big ratings hit.
Overeem was eliminated in the first round by an Egyptian sumo named Oosunarashi. Hunt, who lost to Sapp in the quarterfinals last year, was eliminated in the first round by LeBanner. LeBanner, one of the most popular kickboxers in Japan from the heyday of the sport in the late 90s and early 00s, then beat handball superstar Daisuke Miyazaki, before losing to Baruto in the semifinals.
Yamamoto, who is still under UFC contract but hasn't fought in almost two years due to injuries, lost in the first round to Koki Kameda, a former WBC flyweight boxing champion. Kameda is Japan's most popular boxer. The last we heard, Yamamoto was still going to try and come back to UFC as a flyweight after going 0-3 as a bantamweight. He was Japans most popular native fighter from 2004 to 2008.
Sakuraba, currently a star with New Japan Pro Wrestling, but a national hero as a fighter a dozen years ago, was put down in the first round by the much bigger Kazuhiro Kiyohara, a 46-year-old retired baseball superstar who is a legend in Japan as his 525 career home runs are fifth best of all-time.
The other former MMA fighter in the tournament was Yoshihiro Takayama, best known as a pro wrestler in Japan, but his Pride match with Don Frye is among the most famous MMA fights ever held in Japan. Takayama was eliminated by Ologun. Ologun was a sub for no-show Asashoryu, one of the most famous sumos of modern times.
Randleman was eliminated in the first round by Baruto.
Last year the Fuji network did both a celebrity athlete arm wrestling tournament and a tug-of-war tournament. Sapp won the arm wrestling but then lost to a champion arm wrestler. Hunt won the tug-of-war after an epic struggle with Sapp, and then Hunt beat a tug-of-war champion to boot. Nobody got hurt in the arm wrestling, and I dont think anyone was seriously injured in the tug-of-war, but if I was UFC, Id have never let my fighters do the tug-of-war because I was afraid some of those massive roided up guys were going to tear themselves up when some of the tug-of-wars lasted a while.
**************************************************
The service will open only through the Internet at www.ufc.tv/page/fightpass and be available in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Starting on 3/1, it will be priced at $9.99 per month.
There wasnt much in the way of surprises. The channel will be focused on live coverage of a number of events throughout the year that wont be airing on U.S. television. These will be international shows aimed primarily at the local markets, using fighters from that area and airing in prime time.
While there seems to be the feeling from many that the company is running too many events, which has forced people to skip shows, and once they do so, it makes it easier to continue to do so. But UFC is battling a number of different masters. One is that there is more demand overseas for live events than the number of shows they have. Second is they want to expose and develop local stars, and to do so, that means consistently having local shows in the different markets.
The feeling is that European growth has been slow because the UFC events air live in the middle of the night, and while hardcore fanatics may watch, youre not getting the general public to sample shows at that hour.
For shows that are televised in the U.S., the former Facebook prelims are being renamed Fight Pass prelims.
There will also be international Ultimate Fighter episodes, plus old fights from Pride, WEC, Strikeforce, Affliction, WFA and more promotions.
At the press conference, Marshall Zelaznik, the UFCs Chief Content Officer, who is in charge of the project, noted that they are hopeful to clear Android, Xbox, Roku, Apple and other devices by March, as well as expand the service into Europe, hopefully at the time it becomes a pay service.
For the debut event, on 1/4 from Singapore, which starts at 6 a.m. Eastern time, there will be the availability to watch the show live, or join it in progress and viewing it from the start. Or you could pick which fights you want to see. After the event is over, it will be available on archives.
The ten fight card features mostly unknown fighters, with many making their UFC debut. The lineup has Russell Doane vs. Leandro Issa, Dustin Kimura vs. Jon Delos Reyes, Tae Hyun Bang vs. Mairbek Taisumov, David Galera vs. Royston Wee, Quinn Mulhern vs. Katsunori Kikuno, Will Chope vs. Max Holloway, Kyung Ho Kang vs. Shunichi Shimizu, Kiichi Kunimoto vs. Luiz Dutra, Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Sean Soriano and Tarec Saffiedine vs. Hyun Gyu Lim.
What is interesting is that even though Canada will have access to the show via the Internet, Sportsnet 360 will be airing the top four matches on television starting at 9 a.m., so there is duplication. It was noted that UFCs television contract in Canada and in other countries would allow them to do that, while the U.S. deal would not.
In Australia, all UFC events air on the Australian version of Fuel TV, a cable channel that focuses on UFC and also airs surfing, TNA wrestling and Motocross. They announced that the Singapore show would air live (with the time difference, it starts at 2 a.m. there).
There will also be two events in March exclusive in the U.S. to Fight Pass. One will be the 3/8 show in London headlined by Alexander Gustafsson vs. Jimi Manuwa. The second has not been announced, but the originally planned 3/1 show in Macau has yet to be talked about publicly. At the press conference, they talked about the 3/8 show being the second one on the service.
The major PPV shows will also be put on Fight Pass after a certain period of time. Right now, theyve got a number of shows, including UFC 166 (Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos III) and 167 (GSP vs. Johny Hendricks) already up. Future PPV shows will be put up after they first debut as a television product on FS 1.
On New Years Eve, Satoshi Ishii joined Kurt Angle and Henri Deglane as gold medalist who became world champion in pro wrestling.
But in the case of Ishii, he has never even done what would be considered a pro wrestling match.
In something that could only happen in Japan, Antonio Inokis Inoki Genome Federation booked its world champion, Kazuyuki Fujita, to defend against Ishii in a shoot under MMA rules. Ishii, 27, the 2008 superheavyweight gold medalist in judo, now 11-2 as a fighter, won a dull three round decision on the 12/31 show at Tokyo Sumo Hall before 6,400 fans. This was the closest thing to a continuation of the New Years Eve fighting tradition that has been around in the country since 2000.
Fujita (15-10 in MMA), 43, had not fought in MMA since being knocked out by Alistair Overeem on December 31, 2009, and had been a fixture as a pro wrestler on the IGF stage. This would be the first time the IGF title was put up in a non-worked match. Youd probably have to go back to Mildred Burke vs. June Byers in Atlanta in 1954 to when a pro wrestling world title had been up for grabs in what both participants knew ahead of time would be a shoot, as opposed to a double-cross.
The show itself was the usual for the promotion, in mixing real fighters with pro wrestlers, and having real fighters do pro wrestling and even pro wrestlers do real fighting all on the same show. Its a strange concept that most pro wrestling fans dont like, but they continue to draw better than most of the pro wrestling companies in the country.
With Ishii as champion, the title defenses may end up being shoots going forward.
The show featured four worked matches and six shoot matches. And one match was something of a mixture of both.
The semifinal was a unique mix as kickboxing legends Ray Sefo & Jerome LeBanner formed a tag team to face Naoya Ogawa, the 1992 silver medalist in judo who was a major pro wrestling star, and Shinichi Suzukawa, a former sumo turned pro wrestler. The finish saw Ogawa brawling outside the ring with Peter Aerts, the kickboxer who had just announced his Japanese retirement at the Glory show a week earlier. While Ogawa was occupied, Suzukawa was double-teamed and pinned.
The strangest match was Minowa-man, who has done pro wrestling, always billed himself as a pro wrestler when fighting in Pride and Pancrase, facing Atsushi Sawada, one of the IGFs best Japanese wrestlers. The much smaller Minowa-man knocked out Sawada, who had never fought in MMA previously, with a series of punches, notably a right hook, and a knee to the head and foot stomp (both legal in IGF shoot match rules).
After the match, the two did an obvious pro wrestling angle, with mic work and a pull-apart brawl after both head-butted each other and were pulled apart. Then, after being taken out of the ring, Sawada ran back in to attack Minowa-man while he was doing an in-ring promo.
The show also featured Shinya Aoki, the well known Japanese MMA fighter, who used a triangle to submit Toshikatsu Harada in just 49 seconds. Brett Rogers, who was once a star in Strikeforce, and faced Fedor Emelianenko once on CBS, was choked out by former UFC fighter Phil DeFries in 3:43.
Undercard pro wrestling matches included appearances by Kendo Ka Shin and Bob Sapp.
Fedor Emelianenko lost on 12/30 in Japan to Bob Sapp.
And hell didnt freeze over.
It was actually part of a celebrity 17-man arm wrestling tournament that also included UFC fighters Alistair Overeem, Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto and Mark Hunt, as well as other MMA stars well known in Japan like Kazushi Sakuraba and Kevin Randleman, as well as famous kickboxers Jerome LeBanner and Francisco Filho and pro wrestler Yoshihiro Takayama.
The tournament was mostly celebrities from the heyday of kickboxing and MMA in Japan, along with both current and retired athletes from other sports, including huge sumos.
Sapp won the tournament, beating Baruto, a 6-foot-6, 415-pound Estonian Russian, real name Kaido Hoovelson, who was a famous sumo in Japan until retiring earlier this year. Sapp beat a sumo named Aoiyama and Terry Holland, a strongest man in the world competitor from England, before beating Emelianenko in the semifinals.
Now 40, Sapp is still easily most famous foreign MMA fighter in Japan. Hes turned into a joke as a fighter in recent years as a fighter, and doesnt even headline as a pro wrestler these days, even though he was once probably the most famous American celebrity in the country.
Sapp was a cultural phenomenon a decade ago and was a huge ratings draw for years when he would fight on television, setting a number of ratings records for both MMA and kickboxing, including an audience of 56 million viewers (out of a total of 127 million people in the country) that saw his kickboxing match against Akebono, which took place ten years ago this week, on December 31, 2003.
Sapp, who still wrestles for the IGF, has gone 1-13 in kickboxing over the last eight years and 1-14 as an MMA fighter in the last four-and-a-half years after successful starts in both sports. He was most recently knocked out by retired boxer and MMA fighter Yosuke Nishijima in 2:36 of a kickboxing match on 11/17 in Kumamoto, Japan.
In his first round match, Emelianenko put the arm down of Filho, a K-1 star during the heyday.
Emelianenko next beat Hakuho, a Mongolian sumo Grand champion who is one of the biggest stars of that sport, which would make him a major celebrity in Japan. That is the equivalent of being a Hall of Famer in that sport as there have been less than 100 Grand Champions in history. He followed beating Nigerian comedian Bobby Ologun, who did a number of high-profile MMA fights on Japan's biggest shows. He then lost to Sapp in the semifinal.
The tournament was a live network special that aired in prime time on the Fuji Network in Japan. A similar tournament last year, also won by Sapp, who beat Overeem in the finals, was a big ratings hit.
Overeem was eliminated in the first round by an Egyptian sumo named Oosunarashi. Hunt, who lost to Sapp in the quarterfinals last year, was eliminated in the first round by LeBanner. LeBanner, one of the most popular kickboxers in Japan from the heyday of the sport in the late 90s and early 00s, then beat handball superstar Daisuke Miyazaki, before losing to Baruto in the semifinals.
Yamamoto, who is still under UFC contract but hasn't fought in almost two years due to injuries, lost in the first round to Koki Kameda, a former WBC flyweight boxing champion. Kameda is Japan's most popular boxer. The last we heard, Yamamoto was still going to try and come back to UFC as a flyweight after going 0-3 as a bantamweight. He was Japans most popular native fighter from 2004 to 2008.
Sakuraba, currently a star with New Japan Pro Wrestling, but a national hero as a fighter a dozen years ago, was put down in the first round by the much bigger Kazuhiro Kiyohara, a 46-year-old retired baseball superstar who is a legend in Japan as his 525 career home runs are fifth best of all-time.
The other former MMA fighter in the tournament was Yoshihiro Takayama, best known as a pro wrestler in Japan, but his Pride match with Don Frye is among the most famous MMA fights ever held in Japan. Takayama was eliminated by Ologun. Ologun was a sub for no-show Asashoryu, one of the most famous sumos of modern times.
Randleman was eliminated in the first round by Baruto.
Last year the Fuji network did both a celebrity athlete arm wrestling tournament and a tug-of-war tournament. Sapp won the arm wrestling but then lost to a champion arm wrestler. Hunt won the tug-of-war after an epic struggle with Sapp, and then Hunt beat a tug-of-war champion to boot. Nobody got hurt in the arm wrestling, and I dont think anyone was seriously injured in the tug-of-war, but if I was UFC, Id have never let my fighters do the tug-of-war because I was afraid some of those massive roided up guys were going to tear themselves up when some of the tug-of-wars lasted a while.
**************************************************
Hey, remember a few short months ago when the UFC cut Jon Fitch and Okami Yushin because they had "too many fighters under contract"? Good times.
I wonder how much bigger the roster is now. I'm sure there's dozens and dozens more regional Joes getting 8k/8k to fuel the "UFC experience" around the globe for $9.99 a month.
I wonder how much bigger the roster is now. I'm sure there's dozens and dozens more regional Joes getting 8k/8k to fuel the "UFC experience" around the globe for $9.99 a month.
dream
Member
The planned date for the Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira match would be 4/12 in Baltimore at the old Arena, but there are a number of snags that havent yet been worked out so that date and especially location were not official at press time.
Jessica Evil Eye vs. Alexis Davis has also been added to the 2/22 show in Las Vegas.
No ratings for UFC 168 in Brazil are in yet. Im not sure of the reason, but the show aired on a few hour tape delay, at 3 a.m. on Globo (the biggest network in the country) airing just the final two fights. They usually air it on about 20 minute delay because all UFC stuff goes live on the subscription Combate Channel, but that only reaches the hardcores. UFC network ratings in Brazil on Globo have, as a general rule, fallen greatly over the past two years after being absolutely monstrous in 2011 and still very good in 2012.
Both Nick Diaz and Anderson Silva have talked about doing boxing matches with Roy Jones Jr. That was actually Bellators plan for its first PPV, putting Jones Jr. vs. Rampage Jackson in a boxing match, until Tito Ortiz made himself available. Diaz had told people months ago that he was in talks to face Jones.
Bryan Caraway vs. Lucas Martins has been added to the 2/22 show in Las Vegas. That means Miesha Tate will be in his corner. Too bad she cant come to the ring at the finish of the main event and throw powder.
In very sad news, Mae Young, 90, is under hospice care. Anyone who has had a friend of family member under hospice care knows what that means and it isnt good. It usually means there are people who just help you live out the rest of your life in as little pain as possible when the doctors have nothing left they can do for you. It doesnt necessarily mean that, and there are notable exceptions, but my experience with friends and people in wrestling, it has meant that in every situation. Young had been in the hospital and was released on 12/30. As of press time, Youngs condition was described as stable. She can and is speaking, but her voice sounds weak and tired. Young was asked by WWE to appear on the 1/6 Raw show in Baltimore when they first found out about the seriousness of her condition.
Although its been well-known for some time, Dwayne Johnson officially stated he would not be doing WrestleMania this year. Between Vince, Brock and myself, our WrestleMania 30 plan was Rock vs. Brock. No plans now for 30 but possibly WM 31. My feeling is he wouldnt have mentioned 31 if he had it in his head that he was fully retired from wrestling. Privately, he has suggested that putting over Cena would be a fine way to go out, in his mind, but has never talked of not wrestling as an absolute, just something he was considering. He suffered significant injuries in that match, but before he was hurt, he was going to get laid out by Lesnar on the Raw the day after Mania.
Jessica Evil Eye vs. Alexis Davis has also been added to the 2/22 show in Las Vegas.
No ratings for UFC 168 in Brazil are in yet. Im not sure of the reason, but the show aired on a few hour tape delay, at 3 a.m. on Globo (the biggest network in the country) airing just the final two fights. They usually air it on about 20 minute delay because all UFC stuff goes live on the subscription Combate Channel, but that only reaches the hardcores. UFC network ratings in Brazil on Globo have, as a general rule, fallen greatly over the past two years after being absolutely monstrous in 2011 and still very good in 2012.
Both Nick Diaz and Anderson Silva have talked about doing boxing matches with Roy Jones Jr. That was actually Bellators plan for its first PPV, putting Jones Jr. vs. Rampage Jackson in a boxing match, until Tito Ortiz made himself available. Diaz had told people months ago that he was in talks to face Jones.
Bryan Caraway vs. Lucas Martins has been added to the 2/22 show in Las Vegas. That means Miesha Tate will be in his corner. Too bad she cant come to the ring at the finish of the main event and throw powder.
In very sad news, Mae Young, 90, is under hospice care. Anyone who has had a friend of family member under hospice care knows what that means and it isnt good. It usually means there are people who just help you live out the rest of your life in as little pain as possible when the doctors have nothing left they can do for you. It doesnt necessarily mean that, and there are notable exceptions, but my experience with friends and people in wrestling, it has meant that in every situation. Young had been in the hospital and was released on 12/30. As of press time, Youngs condition was described as stable. She can and is speaking, but her voice sounds weak and tired. Young was asked by WWE to appear on the 1/6 Raw show in Baltimore when they first found out about the seriousness of her condition.
Although its been well-known for some time, Dwayne Johnson officially stated he would not be doing WrestleMania this year. Between Vince, Brock and myself, our WrestleMania 30 plan was Rock vs. Brock. No plans now for 30 but possibly WM 31. My feeling is he wouldnt have mentioned 31 if he had it in his head that he was fully retired from wrestling. Privately, he has suggested that putting over Cena would be a fine way to go out, in his mind, but has never talked of not wrestling as an absolute, just something he was considering. He suffered significant injuries in that match, but before he was hurt, he was going to get laid out by Lesnar on the Raw the day after Mania.
Maklershed
Member
Royston Wee: 2 and 0
"Netflix for fight fans" is perhaps the most apt thing Lorenzo Fertitta has ever said. Just look at their selection.
Will Chope, the Beverly Hills Cop III of MMA.
AstroZombie
Banned
Anyone watch that video from Silver's doctor about what they did to fix his fragile pretzel like bones?
Maklershed
Member
Belfort vs Weidman confirmed for Las Vegas. Either May or July.
Now .. does Belfort get a TRT exemption?
Now .. does Belfort get a TRT exemption?
Ninja Scooter
Member
Weidman is just gonna smother that steroid fueled baboon.
Maklershed
Member
If Weidman Sierra/Longo really wanted to play games, they could ask Belfort to submit to VADA testing and offer to pay for it. Take Tristar's nonsense one step further.
Lambda Pie
Banned
Belfortrt wins by ripping Wildman's throat out and screaming, Road House style.
TheKaeptain
Banned
I thought he couldn't get one?
AstroZombie
Banned
ViTrTor will get power double legged in the first thirty seconds. Wildman will re expose the bitch in him that chuck, randy and saku already exposed.
Rafa=FedKilla
Banned
I will get fight pass. They need go have ultimate fighter from other countries on there though. China looks like a good season full of stars. If the Ultimate needs fill ins, they should really think of adding Nick Newell.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
My reaction at this was an inadvertent live-action Banderas.gif
That said, I've got hopes that lanky cunt can win a sub or decision tomorrow. If not a compound leg fracture.
Maklershed
Member
Keith Kizer said he probably wouldn't allow a TUE for Belfort if he ever applied for one in Nevada but he'll be dealing with a man with the power and resources to bring snow to a desert.
Lambda Pie
Banned
find them, fuck them up. it's Miami, right? you can probably find some characters that will do it for 100$ or less.
Meccanical
Member
I had a dream that I submitted Jon Jones with an armbar.
Why have my sex dreams been replaced by dreams of grappling with men?
This is bullshit.
Why have my sex dreams been replaced by dreams of grappling with men?
This is bullshit.
Maklershed
Member
I had a dream Gabrielle Giffords was helping me get a new job.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
John Hathaway vs. Dong Hyun Kim to headline the TUF: China Finale in March.
That Fight Pass practically pays for itself at this rate.
That Fight Pass practically pays for itself at this rate.
Royston Wee, Will Chope and a Buffalo Wild Wings cook are all gunning for the co-main slot this weekend.