Upcoming
Events
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(All events on Oahu, unless noted)
2008
11/8/08
Aloha
State Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
(BJJ/Sub Grapping)
(Gym #1, UH Manoa)
August 2008
The Quest
for Champions Martial Arts Tournament
(Sport-Pankration, Submission Grappling and Continuous Sparring)
8/9/08
K-1 Hawaii Grand Prix
(Kickboxing & MMA)
(Stan Sheriff Center, UH at Manoa)
7/26/08
Maui Jiu-Jitsu BJJ Tournament
(BJJ)
(Maui War Memorial Gym, Wailuku, Maui)
7/19/08
Affliction - Fedor vs. Sylvia
7/11/08
Hawaii Fighting Championships 10
(MMA)
(Dole Cannery Ballrooms)
7/5/08
UFC 86 - Jackson vs. Griffin
(PPV)
6/27-29/08
OTM Pacific Submission
Grappling Tournament
(BJJ/Sub Grappling)
(Blaisdell Exhibition Hall)
MMA Expo
(Blaisdell Convention Center)
6/21/08
Hawaii
Xtreme Combat
(MMA)
(Lahaina Civic Center, Lahaina, Maui)
Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale
6/20/08
Paragon
(MMA Hybred)
(O Lounge)
6/15/08
Grapplefest
(Submission Grappling)
Anderson Silva Seminar
Studio 4, UH at Manoa
1-4PM
$100
Mauricio "Shogun" Rua Seminar
Tropic Lightning TKD
Waipahu
5-7PM
$60
6/14/08
EliteXC
(MMA)
(Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, HI)
6/7/08
UFC 85 - Bedlam
(PPV)
6/6/08
Punishment in Paradise
Pound 4 Pound
(Kickboxing)
(Ahuna Ranch, Maili)
6/5-8/08
World Jiu-Jitsu Championsihps
(BJJ)
(California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, California)
6/1/08
Hawaiian
Open of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
(BJJ/Sub Grapping)
(Gym #1, UH Manoa)
WEC 33
(Faber vs. Pulver)
(PPV)
5/31/08
CBS EliteXC
Saturday Night Fights
(9-11 p.m. ET/PT)
(CBS)
5/25/08
Man Up Stand Up
(Kickboxing)
(Filcom Center, Waipahu)
5/24/08
UFC 84 - Ill Will
BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk
(PPV)
5/16/08
X-1: Legends
(MMA)
(Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, HI)
5/9/08
Man Up Stand Up
(Kickboxing)
(Filcom Center, Waipahu)
Hawaii Fighting Championships 9
(MMA)
(Dole Cannery Ballrooms)
5/3/08
Hawaii
Fight League
Season 1, Event 3
(MMA)
(Filcom Center, Waipahu)
Full Force 4
(MMA)
(Maui War Memorial Gym, Wailuku, Maui)
Heart-of-a-Cage-Fighter
(Kauai
Veterans Center, Lihue, Kauai)
4/25/08
Punishment
in Paradise
(Kickboxing)
(Farrington High School)
4/18/08
Local Pride
Friday, April 18, 2008
(MMA)
(Dole Cannery Ballroom)
4/12/08
Man Up &Stand Up
(Kickboxing)
(Filcom Center, Waipahu)
4/6/08
GrappleFest: Submission
Sundays
(Submission Grappling)
(Hawaii Room, Neal Blaisdell Center)
3/29/08
Garden Island Cage Match 7
(MMA)
(Hanapepe Stadium, Hanapepe, Kauai)
Hawaii Fighting Championships 8
(MMA)
(Maui War Memorial)
3/28-30/08
Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship
(BJJ)
(Californina State University, Dominguez Hills, CA)
Registration ends 3/22/08
3/16/08
Sera's Kajukenbo Open Tournament
(Continuous
Sparring, MMA, Submission Grappling)
(Maui High School Gym, Kahului, Maui)
Icon Fitness Gym Tournament
(Submission Wrestling)
(Icon Fitness Gym)
3/15/08
Icon Sport
(MMA)
(Blaisdell Arena)
3/9/08
2008 Pacific Invitational BJJ Tournament
(BJJ )
(Hibiscus Room, Ala Moana Hotel, Honolulu)
3/7/08
Got Skillz Fighter
(Kickboxing/MMA)
(Waipahu Filcom)
3/1/08
USA-Boxing
Hawaii, Palolo B.C. & Kawano B.C. Presents Amateur Boxing
(Boxing)
(Palolo District Park)
2/29/08
X-1 at the O-Lounge
Fight Club Meets Nightclub 4
(MMA)
(O-Lounge, Honolulu)
2/24/08
Icon Grappling Tournament
(Sub Grappling)
(Icon Gym)
2/17/08
Hawaiian
Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
(BJJ/Sub Grapping)
(Gym #1, UH Manoa)
2/15/07
Midwest Invasion: Team Indiana vs. Team Hawaii
(MMA)
(Coyotes Night Club, 935 Dillingham Blvd, Kalihi)
2/8/08
Hawaii Fighting Championships 7
(Kickboxing & MMA)
(Dole Cannery Ballroom)
2/2/08
Man up and Stand up
(Kickboxing)
(Dole Cannery
Ballroom)
1/26/08
X1 World
Events: Champions
(MMA)
(Blaisdell Arena)
1/20/08
Big
Island Open Jiu-Jitsu Tournament
(Konawaena High School)
(BJJ/Sub Grappling)
(POSTPONED)
1/19/08
UFC 80: Rapid Fire
(BJ Penn vs. Joe Stevenson)
Newcastle, England
1/12/08
Hawaii Fight League
Season 1, Event 2
(MMA)
(Dole Cannery Ballroom)
|
|
June 2008 News Part
2
|
Casca Grossa Jiu-Jitsu
is now the O2 Martial Arts Academy with 6 days a week training!
We are also offering Escrima (stick fighting) on Monday nights
with Ian Beltran and Kickboxing Tuesday and Thursday with Kaleo
Kwan!
Click
here for info!
Take classes from the Onzuka brothers in a family-like environment! |
In Memory of
Lars Chase
Rest in peace my brother
March 10, 1979 - April 2, 2008 |
Looking for a hotel
room on Oahu?
Check out this reasonably priced, quality hotel in Waikiki!
For the special Onzuka.com price, click on one of these banners
above! |
Check out the FCTV website! |
Fighters' Club TV
The Toughest Show On
Teleivision
Tuesdays at 7:00PM
***NEW TIME***
Olelo Channel 52 on Oahu
Also on Akaku on Maui
Fighters' Club TV Radio
The Toughest Show On
Radio
Mondays at 9:00-10:00AM
AM1500 The Team
(808) 296-1500
- Call
in with questions and comments
with hosts Mark Kurano
& Icon Sport's Patrick Freitas |
Onzuka.com
Hawaii Underground Forum is Online!
Chris, Mark,
and I wanted to start an official Onzuka.com forum for a while
now. We were searching for the best forum to go with and hit
a gold mine! We have known Kirik, who heads the largest and most
popular forum on the net, The Underground for years.
He
offered us our own forum within the matrix know as MMA.tv. The
three of us will be the moderators with of course FCTV808 being
the lead since he is on there all day anyway!
We
encourage everyone from Hawaii and our many readers around world
to contribute to the Hawaii Underground.
If you
do not have a login, it's simple and fast to get one.
Click here to set up an account.
Don't worry about using Pidgin English in the posting. After
all it is the Hawaii Underground and what is a Hawaii Underground
without some Aloha and some Pidgin?
To
go directly to the Onzuka.com Hawaii Underground Forum
click here!
|
Want to Advertise on Onzuka.com?
Click here
for pricing and more information!
Short term and long term advertising available.
More than
1 million hits and counting!
|
O2 Martial Arts
Academy Day Classes Start May 2!
Women & Kids Kickboxing Class starts May 4!
Click here
for pricing and more information!
O2MAA Relson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Day Classes will be held on Monday,
Wednesday, and Fridays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm and will be taught
by one of Relson Gracie's first black belts, Sam Mahi!
We will be starting a Womens and Kids kickboxing class on Sunday
afternoons from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm. The class will be taught
by none other than O2's Kaleo Kwan! It will be a non-competitive,
fun atmosphere and allow the ladies and kids to get in a quick
workout and learn some legitimate kickboxing technique before
the long work week starts.
|
Want to Contact
Us? Shoot us an email by Clicking Here!
Quote
of the Day
Let your
heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone, and
let your hand give in proportion to your purse."
George Washington, 1732-1799, 1st President of the United States
|
PARAGON
Fighter Tonight!
This is the
latest progression in Hawaii's fighting evolution, for fighters
with stand-up/kickboxing, triple threat/got skills, as well as
MMA backgrounds in both amateur and pro-bouts.
This
event will feature an extensive fight-card, with fighters from
Oahu AND outer islands to showcase their talent as well as gain
valuable experience and exposure.
WHAT:PARAGON
WHEN: FRIDAY, JUNE 20
TIME: 7:3O PM
Where; Olounge Nightclub
tickets:
$25 pre-sale/ $30 door
ticket info: 741-0322 / 781-2064
JUST AN UPDATE ON THE MAIN EVENT...
JOHNAVAN
"THE WARRIOR" VISTANTE JR. VS. MICHAEL BRIGHTMON
CAN
YOU PLS. UPLOAD ATTACHED POSTER AS WELL AS STATEMENT THAT
FULL FIGHT CARD TO FOLLOW SOON...WEIGH-INS & PRESS COVERAGE
THIS THUR. JUNE 19 @ OLOUNGE NIGHTCLUB 7PM...FIGHTERS UNDER 18
MUST BRING PARENT/GUARDIAN ALONG W/PHOTO I.D.
MUCH
THANKS, AGAIN, AND WILL ONE OF YOU BE ABLE TO BE OUR GUEST(S)
AS A JUDGE ON FRIDAY? THIS SHOULD BE AN EXCITING NIGHT!
 |
Hawaii
Xtreme Combat Tomorrow
Lahaina
Civic Center, Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii
Saturday, June 21, 2008
AMATEURS:
135LBS
(1-0) DAVIN "BAMBAM" BALAGSO (MMA BUILT) VS. (4-0)
ELGEN "BOODA" VERDADERO (SOUTHSIDE BOXING)
205LBS
(0-0) KALEI UAIWA (MAUI ALLIANCE) VS. (2-0) MILLER UALESI (TEAM
RUTHLESS)
145LBS
(0-1) KURRENT COCKETT (TEAM 323) VS. (2-2) GERALD GAMMIT (SOUTHSIDE
BOXING)
185LBS
(0-0) HOKU KALALAU (TEAM KOALI) VS. (2-0) GENO VENTI (808 FIGHT
FACTORY)
PROS:
170LBS
(1-0) IRON KONA KE (TEAM RUTHLESS) VS. (2-2) SEAN RIVEIRA (EVOLUTION
FIGHT CLU
(6-6)
KIMO WOELFEL (EASTSIDAZ) VS. (1-0) MARK "QUICK THRILLS"
BONILLA (HI INTNL BOXING)
160LBS
(3-1) EDDIE RINCON (TEAM 323) VS. (2-2) IKAIKA CHOY FOO (FREELANCE)
155LBS
(5-0) ALAN HINOJOSA (IMPACT ZONE) VS. (2-4) TYLER "PITBULL"
KAHIHIKOLO (KONA BOXING)
(6-3)
TYSON NAHOOIKAIKA (ISLAND WARRIORS) VS. (1-1) IKAIKA MORENO (
GODS ARMY)
235LBS
(3-1) KAEO _link_EE (BANG INC) VS. (2-1) ADAM AKAU (FREELANCE)
135LBS
(2-0-1) DAVID "HOLLYWOOD" BALICAO (808 FF) VS. (5-1)
PENI "TONGAN ASSASIN" TAUFAAO (EASTSIDAZ)
145LBS
(2-2) BRONSON PIEPLER (808 FF) VS. (5-1) PACO WOODS (BJ PENN
MMA)
--NAINOA
DUNG--VS--TBA
**DYLAN CLAY INJURED**
|
The
Ultimate Finale Tomorrow!
Hawaii Air Times
6-9PM Spike (Channel 559)
Main Card Bouts:
-Evan Tanner vs. Kendall
Grove
-Ultimate Fighter 7 Final: Amir Sadollah vs. C.B. Dollaway
-Diego Sanchez vs. Luigi Fioravanti
-Spencer Fisher vs. Jeremy Stephens
-Dante Rivera vs. Matthew Riddle
Preliminary
Bouts:
-Josh Burkman vs. Dustin Hazelett
-Marvin Eastman vs. Drew McFedries
-Matt Arroyo vs. Matt Brown
-Dean Lister vs. Jeremy Horn
-Tim Credeur vs. Cale Yarbrough
-Rob Yundt vs. Rob Kimmons
|
Lorenzo
Fertitta shifts from the casino to UFC
By Zach Arnold
There
was too much to do business-wise for Dana White in UFC (claims
that he spent 2-4 days a month at home in Las Vegas), so this
announcement is the ‘happiest he’s been in a long time’
to have Lorenzo coming on-board
This announcement should put to end any rumors that UFC will
be sold any time soon
Lorenzo’s deal is aggressive international expansion of
the company (China, India, and Brazil)
They are going to become even more aggressive and be really hard
on any competitor by serving notice to anyone who is trying to
go national in the MMA scene
There is an 8-year plan to be the #1 sport in the world
Lorenzo Fertitta’s big role in the company will be on the
merchandising side of the equation
In regards to future television deals for UFC, “They want
an NBA deal where they get paid big, big money”
Sam Caplan:
But
to say the primary motive for this decision is based on the growth
of the company is not telling the whole story. While this isn’t
a demotion for White and he isn’t going anywhere anytime
soon, Fertitta’s involvement still means that a great deal
of White’s power has been usurped. Before this announcement,
Dana was the most powerful man in MMA. Now, he’s number
two.
Jared
Barnes:
Having
a proven businessman like Fertitta working side by side next
to the original MMA gangsta Dana White will mean the UFC will
have more executive manpower to put together last-minute promotions
to rival any other potential competitors. Good for the UFC, bad
for other organizations. See ya Affliction, Darth White has found
his Sith Lord and you’re in trouble.
Source: Fight Opinion
|
Shields
vs Fickett Fight in Jeopardy
It seems as if the EliteXC Jake Shields/Drew Fickett fight will
not be happening after all. The fight was to have happened this
past Saturday for the EliteXC welterweight belt, but was postponed
to September when Fickett told EliteXC officials he needed more
time to recover from an injury.
To the chagrin of EliteXC officials, Fickett signed on to another
organization and proceeded to fight in Arizona one week ago.
Fickett's decision cost Shields financially as he was left without
a fight for the Hawaii card. EliteXC has not been able to contact
Fickett and it looks as if they will be dropping him from their
organization.
Shields
will now be fighting on EliteXC's newly announced July 26th CBS
show. Possible opponents now being looked at are Nick Thompson
and Jay Hieron amongst others.
Source: Gracie Fighter
|
A
chat with Rudimar Fedrigo
Chute Boxe is betting on Fabricio Werdum to conquer a heavyweight
belt
Chute Boxe leader speaks of Werdum, Belfort and much more
Owing
some attention to one of the greatest leaders of the fight world
in Brazil, GRACIEMAG.com decided to contact Rudimar Fedrigo to
catch up on things, and the conversation paid off. Always helpful,
Mestrao (Big Master), as his athletes call him, didn't hide his
happiness for his team's latest results and analyzed the big
names who have been making noise in events abroad, and of course
spoke of the mood in his training center: "The academy is
going really well. Everyone is training with high spirits every
day," he began.
The
next subject was Fabricio Werdum, who seems to have incorporated
the trademark Chute Boxe aggressiveness his game was missing
and made it to the top of the list of challengers for the belt.
"Werdum is progressing very well, and is pleasing all his
coaches. He has a great chance of fulfilling the academy's old
dream, of becoming heavyweight champion. I would like for his
next fight to be for the title, but let's wait and see. He is
excited and has been on the right track. Chute Boxe has a personal
project of making his a champion," the master stated.
Rudimar
also spoke about Vitor Belfort's recent appearance at the team's
headquarters in Curitiba. Vitinho has a fight set for July 19
at Affliction against Terry Martin, but should not be joining
the team permanently.
"I
haven't spoken with Belfort again. I found out through the press
he would be doing the rest of his preparations in Rio. What happened
was a welcome coincidence, but he only trained here one weekend,
as he was just passing through the city. It was just technical
training, but I like him, he's a great person and whenever he
wants the doors are always open," he explained.
As
the team is big, Rudimar carried on listing the achievements
and talking about his pupils: "Luiz Azeredo was all set
to travel today. It's a shame, but we're already looking at another
American event for him," he said, referring to the cancellation
of the Godz of War event, which would take place on Saturday.
"At
Sengoku 3 we have Fabio Silva, who put in a great appearance
and got the knockout, and Maicon Costa, who had an excellent
appearance and pleased the public a lot. He had been winning
but ended up getting caught at the end of the fight," he
added.
There
was still time for Rudimar to speak about some others who had
been in the public eye: Daniel Acacio and Jiu-Jitsu instructor
Cristiano Marcelo. So the Chute Boxe chief let out some first
hand news: "Cristiano Marcelo and Daniel Acacio are talking
with Sengoku and may be in the next event," he finished.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
STRIKEFORCE
UPDATE: RIGGS STEPS IN FOR CARTER
Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Shonie Carter has had
to withdraw from his scheduled bout with rising Strikeforce talent
Luke Stewart, according to a report on Sherdog.com. The two were
expected to meet as part of the “Melendez vs. Thomson”
event at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.
Carter
apparently injured his hand in training and was unsure if he
would be able to meet the medical requirements of the California
State Athletic Commission.
Stepping
in to take his place is fellow UFC veteran Joe Riggs. Riggs is
2-1 since leaving the UFC in late 2006. He has struggled recently,
losing his last bout, due to a back injury. The injury required
surgery and has kept him out of action for the past four months.
The
main bouts on the fight card are scheduled to be show live on
HDNet.
-Gilbert
Melendez vs. Josh Thomson
-Bobby Southworth vs. Anthony Ruiz
-Elaina Maxwell vs. Meisha Tate
-Luke Stewart vs. Joe Riggs
-Nam Phan vs. Billy Evangelista
-Bobby Stack vs. Jose Palacios
-Jeremiah Metcalf vs. Raymond Daniels
-Cyrillo Padhillo vs. Jesse Jones
-Alexander Trivino vs. Genaro Strangis
-Jesse Gillespie vs. Davis Martin
-Josh Neal vs. Travis Johnson
-Chris Cariaso vs. Anthony Figueroa
-Eric Lawson vs. TBA
-Alvin Cacdac vs. TBA
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Gesias
talk about his recovery
By Guilherme Cruz
The
defeat at a GP could leave an athlete down, but for Gesias Cavalcante
it had a positive side. The two fights he made against Shinya
Aoki at lightweight Dream GP, being eliminated in the second
one, forced Gesias to find a little time to take care of his
body, punished after a long bouts sequence since the K-1, and
do a knee surgery. "I had this surgery two weeks ago and
doing physiotherapy. The recovery is been fast, now I have a
new knee. The defeat has not changed in any way, indeed changed
for better. I am having a time to recover myself from injuries
and giving my body a rest", told the Brazilian, which has
a forecast for his back. "I hope to be back in the end of
the year or, if there isn’t any event, in the next year",
said the ATT athlete.
Source: Tatame
|
The
Great Fight North - Horodecki Waits on IFL
Mike Russell
s decision to cancel its show on Friday, Aug. 15 in East Rutherford,
N.J., in an effort to keep the promotion afloat. IFL CEO Jay
Larkin did little to quash rumors that the company might cease
operations.
"We're
going to stick around as long as we possibly can, and that's
the major reason for canceling the August show -- to give us
the resources to stick around for a few more months and play
it through," Larkin said. "Our cash situation is such
that to continue to do an event in August would put the company
in jeopardy."
With
the future of the organization in doubt, London, Ontario, fighter
Chris Horodecki will take a wait-and-see approach with the promotion.
He was booked to compete at the New Jersey show. Horodecki, who
had emerged as the unofficial poster boy for the IFL after he
made his debut for the league in 2006, prefers to continue fight
for the troubled promotion but realizes he needs to prepare for
the worst.
"It
sucks having a fight canceled and having a lot of time between
fights, but it happens," Horodecki said. "Once we find
out what's happening with the league, I'm going to have to decide
what's the best thing for me to do."
Until
the fate of the IFL is determined, Horodecki will keep busy with
his new gig as a trainer at the recently opened Xtreme Couture
facility in Toronto. The 20-year-old also plans to open a new
gym -- tentatively named Adrenaline Mixed Martial Arts: Home
of Team Tomkins -- in London with longtime training partners
Mark Hominick and Sam Stout. The academy will replace Team Tompkins
Muay Thai and Submission, which was operated by team founder
Shawn Tompkins for more than a decade.
According
to Horodecki, investors have come aboard, a location has been
picked and the gym should be up and running by mid August.
"It's
going to be incredible -- 11,000 square feet and state-of-the-art
everything," Horodecki said. "The old gym was totally
old school. We didn't even have a cage, just a fence and concrete.
This gym is going to be different."
Source: The Fight Network
|
Comprido
coaches Brock Lesnar
Big
American to face Heath Herring at UFC 87
Black
belt Rodrigo Comprido has been handed the task of working on
Brock Lesnar's ground game for his upcoming fight against Heath
Herring at UFC 87, on August 9th. To do so, Comprido flew over
to Minessota, where he is working at Minnessota Martial Arts
Academy.
Lesnar
is famous for his time as a pro-wrestler, and is being tipped
to be of great promise in MMA for the high level of wrestling
he possesses, athleticism and extraordinary strength. In his
UFC debut, he was submitted by Jiu-Jitsu stylist Frank Mir, and
has now decided to solicit the help of a master of the gentle
art so it may never happen again.
GRACIEMAG.com
will bring you an interview with Comprido talking about his training
at Minnessota Martial Arts Academy shortly. stay tuned.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
Quote
of the Day
“The
best way to get something done is to begin.”
Source Unknown
|
CHRIS
LEBEN'S RETURN FROM "OZ"
Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight Chris Leben is walking
the streets of Oahu, Hawaii again after serving 11 days in a
Portland, Ore. jail. After being released, he visited Seattle
for a brief training stint with former coach Matt Hume at AMC
Pankration, assisting Jorge Gurgel for his bout with Cole Miller
at UFC 86. Now, he’s back at the ICON Sport gym in the Aloha
state, putting his life back together.
The
original cast member of “The Ultimate Fighter” turned
himself in to authorities on April 30 after a bench warrant was
issued for his arrest. Leben was sentenced to 35 days in jail
for violating the terms of his probation stemming from a 2005
DUI charge, but was allowed an early release to serve the remainder
of his time under “home detention.”
He
was originally scheduled to fight Michael Bisping at UFC 85 in
London, but was forced to cede the fight to Jason Day when his
sentence was passed down.
It
was not the first time Leben had been to jail – he says
he was imprisoned for the same charge in his last stay –
but it carried greater consequences than ever before. Sitting
in his cell, Leben had nothing but time to think about the mistakes
he had made.
“I
was really down,” he told MMAWeekly.com. “I really,
really wanted to fight Bisping.”
For
all the gripping images that jail sometimes conjures, it’s
a monumentally boring experience. Especially for a guy like Leben,
who isn’t exactly a mellow-yellow personality.
“It
was claustrophobic,” he said. “The roofs are really
short, you’re breathing in all this recycled air, everything’s
white concrete. You don’t have a lot of space; there’s
no windows to see outside. Sometimes you have to sit down, take
a deep breath, (and say) time will pass.”
And
it did, albeit like watching paint dry. There was no way for
Leben to stay in shape. He was a highly trained athlete with
nowhere to work out. He went old-school, doing push-ups and sit-ups
in his cell. A modern MMA gym it was not. The prison administration
wouldn’t even let him outside into “the yard.”
It’s not clear where he got this fact, but Leben said the
jail had the distinction of being the third most dangerous in
the nation.
“As
soon as I started to do anything, everyone was like ‘what
are you doing?’” he recalled. “Training martial
arts probably isn’t the best thing to do around a bunch
of felons.”
You’d
think that being a professional fighter might paint a target
on his back, but Leben encountered more curiosity from his fellow
inmates than anything else. They wanted him to show them some
moves. Happy to oblige, he once demonstrated a choke on an inmate
while 20 others watched.
“I
told the guys it’s a blood choke, so you don’t have
to squeeze hard,” he said. “So I was just kind of choking
him with one arm while he’s standing up. And I told him
just tap when you start to feel like you’re going to pass
out. Well, he didn’t tap, and at the time I’m going
wow, this guy’s pretty tough, I’m surprised he hasn’t
tapped yet. He just drops to the floor in the cell.
“Now
I’m standing there with 20 prisoners around and they’re
freaking out. This guy’s laying there, snoring like crazy.
I’m like ‘it’s all right, it’s all right,’
then I realize they have cameras in here. I’ve just choked
this guy out in jail – I could get in trouble for this.
I kept telling them, ‘he’s fine, he’s fine,’
and it took this guy a minute to wake up. Finally he woke up
and we had a laugh, and luckily I didn’t get in any trouble
for it. That was beginning and the ending of my inmate coaching
career.”
Not
surprisingly, Leben said the entire experience was a wake up
call for him. He realized he wasn’t a 21-year-old anymore,
and there was a lot more for him to lose. He couldn’t run
away from his problems, or punch through them.
“I’m
more or less someone who’s got a few issues,” he said.
“It made me realize I should have just taken care of it.
You’ve got 150 students who want to know where you’re
at; you’ve got a top-level fight you’re missing. You
need to be taking care of yourself. It gave me a lot of time
to evaluate my life.”
Leben
has not spoken to UFC officials since getting out of jail, but
feels confident he will be fighting in the next few months. He
would seem a prime candidate for the UFC’s impromptu “Ultimate
Fight Night” card being held on July 19, but says he doubts
he could be ready in time. As of now, he is eyeing an August
return to the Octagon.
“I
don’t want to go out there and compete because I can,”
he said. “Right now I want to focusing on making me the
best I’ve ever been.”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
NOT
FLASHY, BUT FERTITTA EXPANDS ROLE WITH UFC
After weeks of speculation, the Ultimate Fighting Championship
on Wednesday finally let its employees in on “the big announcement”
that everyone has been bantering about. According to Kevin Iole
at Yahoo Sports, co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta has resigned his position
as president of Station Casinos to take on a more active role
in the UFC.
As
mentioned by both Fertitta and company president Dana White in
Iole’s report, the move is not a condemnation of White’s
performance as president of the company, but rather an indication
of how much growth the company has undergone and intends to sustain
in the future.
Fertitta
is expected to focus on developing the international business
of the company as the UFC expands into Germany and other European
countries, the Philippines and other Asian countries, Australia,
and South America.
Speculation
about White’s “big announcement” has centered
on everything from a network TV deal to a change in ownership
to taking the company public and everything in between. So as
White said in his comments to Iole, the Internet-based MMA community
as a whole probably won’t see this as a significant announcement.
That is primarily because most of the fans that follow the sport
are concerned with the fighters and the fights, not the behind
the scenes business of the company.
It
should, however, be noted that despite it’s lack of glitz
to either the casual or hardcore fight fan, Fertitta’s resignation
from Station Casinos – a billion dollar a year company –
to take a more prominent role in the future of the UFC is anything
but insignificant.
Fertitta
would not leave his position as one of the highest paid casino
executives in Las Vegas, especially as the company is aggressively
developing new properties, if there wasn’t just cause to
believe the UFC was undergoing its own significant growing phase.
There
likely won’t be any immediate changes for the casual fan
to notice in the short term, but as the company expands its reach
across the globe, there will be numerous developments that fans
will appreciate, but not likely know to credit to Fertitta’s
expanded involvement.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
MINOR
N.Y. SETBACK SHADOWS UFC ANNOUNCEMENT
MMAWeekly.com on Wednesday learned that Bill 1-11458-A, that
would effectively legalize the sport of mixed martial arts in
the state of New York, will not go to a vote within the Tourism,
Arts, and Sports Development committee until January of 2009.
Elizabeth
Nostrand, Legislative Director for Steve Englebrecht, the bill’s
sponsor, said that following a botched vote on the house floor
last Tuesday, in which several committee members attempted to
change their votes after placing them, Englebrecht decided to
delay the next vote on the bill.
“It
was put on the committee’s agenda, but the chair decided
it would be best for purposes of clarification to give all sides
an opportunity to weigh in so the best interests of the participants
and the state of New York could be served,” Nostrand said.
The
bill’s delay effectively cancels the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s
stated goal of putting on a show at Madison Square Garden in
December.
Nostrand
said that committee members had a myriad of confusions surrounding
the bill, and that Englebrecht planned on holding a public hearing
or round table discussion to educate committee members on its
ramifications. The meetings would take place between the close
of the legislative session on June 23 and the start of the next
session.
Despite
the disappointment in the delay of approval in New York, when
asked for comment, a UFC spokesman stated, “We are highly
optimistic that mixed martial arts, the fastest-growing sport
in America, will be regulated in New York in the near future.
We are dedicated to educating policymakers about mixed martial
arts, and we look forward to holding a live event for our strong
and growing base of New York supporters.”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
EVAN
TANNER IS OLDER, WISER... AND READY
Former
Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight titleholder Evan
Tanner takes on The Ultimate Fighter 3 winner Kendall Grove in
the main event of The Ultimate Fighter 7 Live Finale this Saturday
from the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
"I
feel really good. I've been working at the Warrior Training Center
in Vegas... I've got a really good camp and I'm feeling great.
I feel really good," Tanner told MMAWeekly.com about his
upcoming bout with Grove.
Tanner
returned to the Octagon at UFC 82 after nearly two years away
from competition in a losing effort to middleweight contender
Yushin Okami. "It's all a learning experience," said
Tanner. "Yea, if I had taken more time to prepare for the
fight, of course, I know I could have done a little better. Maybe
if I had taken a more lesser opponent my first fight. That's
the fight that was offered and the time that was offered, so
I figured I'd at least get my foot back in the door. So I took
it.
"Going
into this fight with Kendall Grove I'm an older and wiser man,
an older and wiser fighter."
With
Tanner coming off the loss to Okami and Grove dropping back-to-back
bouts to Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera, both fighters are in
desperate need of a win. "I think he's going to be hungry.
We're both in a must win situation. We're both hungry,"
said the Texan.
"I
think that that's probably motivated both of us in training.
I think that's going to carry over into the fight. We're both
going to be going in there to win. I think that's going to make
for a great fight. I'm looking forward to it."
Tanner
has three times the amount of fights as Grove and feels that
experience will come into play Saturday night when the two face
off. "Experience in the ring is always an asset. I'm not
sure how it's going to come into play, but I know it will,"
said the former UFC middleweight champion.
"It's
not the only answer. I've got preparation. I've trained extremely
hard for this fight. I finally got the ring-rust out. I'm going
in comfortable, strong and ready to go.” He continued, “I've
been training extremely hard for this fight. I've been training
for nine months straight."
Source: MMA Weekly
|
METAL
BAND MEGADETH TO PERFORM AT AFFLICTION
Affliction Entertainment, scheduled to make its MMA debut on
July 19 at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., keeps building this
event with the latest news – heavy metal band Megadeth,
led by frontman, guitarist, and songwriter Dave Mustaine, will
be performing live at the event.
According
to a spokesperson for Affliction, Megadeth will be performing
a key points during the event itself.
The
platinum selling band has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide
and will perform a special highlight performance. Known for their
distinctive, in-your-face guitar solos, snarling vocal style
and dark lyrical themes, Megadeth is sure to resonate with the
“Affliction Banned” fan base and intensify the already
action-packed event.
“Affliction
Banned,” a mixed-martial-arts pay-per-view event in association
with Roy Englebrecht Events, features former undisputed Pride
heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko against former two-time
UFC heavyweight titleholder Tim Sylvia.
A
four-fight pay-per-view undercard includes Josh Barnett, facing
off stateside for the first time in two years, in a grudge match
against the only opponent to ever knock him out, Brazilian Pedro
Rizzo.
Three-time
All-American wrestler Mike Whitehead will battle Brazilian Renato
“Babalu” Sobral. 2000 Olympic Wrestling Silver Medalist
Matt Lindland faces Brazilian Fabio “Negao” Nascimento.
Former International Fight League titlist Ben Rothwell is scheduled
to fight Andre Arlovski.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
MMAWEEKLY
WORLD MMA RANKINGS UPDATED
The latest MMAWeekly World MMA Rankings were released on Wednesday,
June 18. This system ranks the Top 10 MMA fighters from all across
the world in each of the six most widely accepted weight classes.
Taken
into consideration are a fighter's performance in addition to
his win-loss record, head-to-head and common opponents, difficulty
of opponents, and numerous other factors in what is the most
comprehensive rankings system in the sport.
Fighters
who are currently serving drug-related suspensions are not eligible
for Top 10 consideration until they have fought one time after
the completion of their suspension.
Fighters
must also have competed within the past 12 months in order to
be eligible for Top 10 consideration.
Below
are the current MMAWeekly World MMA Rankings, which are up-to-date
as of June 18.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
HEAVYWEIGHT
DIVISION (over 205 pounds)
#1
Heavyweight Fighter in the World: Fedor Emelianenko
2.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
3.
Randy Couture
4.
Josh Barnett
5.
Tim Sylvia
6.
Andrei Arlovski
7.
Fabricio Werdum
8.
Gabriel Gonzaga
9.
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic
10.
Aleksander Emelianenko
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
LIGHT
HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION (205-pound limit)
#1
Light Heavyweight Fighter in the World: Quinton Jackson
2.
Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
3.
Chuck Liddell
4.
Lyoto Machida
5.
Wanderlei Silva
6.
Forrest Griffin
7.
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
8.
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
9.
Keith Jardine
10.
Thiago Silva
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
MIDDLEWEIGHT
DIVISION (185-pound limit)
#1
Middleweight Fighter in the World: Anderson Silva
2.
Paulo Filho
3.
Rich Franklin
4.
Robbie Lawler
5.
Kazuo Misaki
6.
Yushin Okami
7.
Nathan Marquardt
8.
Dan Henderson
9.
Gegard Mousasi
10.
Denis Kang
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
WELTERWEIGHT
DIVISION (170-pound limit)
#1
Welterweight Fighter in the World: Georges St. Pierre
2.
Jon Fitch
3.
Thiago Alves
4.
Josh Koscheck
5.
Matt Hughes
6.
Matt Serra
7.
Jake Shields
8.
Diego Sanchez
9.
Carlos Condit
10.
Karo Parisyan
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
LIGHTWEIGHT
DIVISION (160-pound limit)
#1
Lightweight Fighter in the World: B.J. Penn
2.
Takanori Gomi
3.
Shinya Aoki
4.
Tatsuya Kawajiri
5.
Gesias "JZ" Calvancante
6.
Gilbert Melendez
7.
Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro
8.
Mitsuhiro Ishida
9.
Joe Stevenson
10.
Sean Sherk
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
FEATHERWEIGHT
DIVISION (145 pounds and under)
#1
Featherweight Fighter in the World: Urijah Faber
2.
Akitoshi Tamura
3.
Antonio Carvalho
4.
Hideki Kadowaki
5.
Hatsu Hioki
6.
"Lion" Takeshi Inoue
7.
Masakazu Imanari
8.
Mike Brown
9.
Jeff Curran
10.
Rafael Assuncao
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Affliction
hoping for big burst on MMA scene
He
doesn’t so much as have a promoter’s license yet, but
Tom Atencio has already got the shtick down.
He’s
about a month away from promoting his first mixed martial arts
card, but he’s already touting it as the best in the history
of the sport.
That
might be a stretch, though it’s going to feature six of
the world’s elite heavyweights and enough of the world’s
finest fighters to hold the interest of even the most ardent
MMA fans.
And
Atencio insists he’s undaunted by the enormity of the task
that lay ahead of Affliction before its July 19 debut card at
the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
He’s
got a card stacked with big – and expensive – names,
elite heavyweights such as Fedor Emelianenko, Tim Sylvia, Andrei
Arlovski, Josh Barnett, Ben Rothwell, Pedro and Aleksander Emelianenko.
That’s
a former PRIDE heavyweight champion and three ex-UFC heavyweight
champs among that group, in case you’re wondering.
“If
you are an MMA fan, even if you’re just a casual fan, can
you look at this card and not say you’re dying to see it?”
Atencio asks.
No
doubt. It’s a must-see event, particularly since it brings
Fedor Emelianenko back onto the world stage.
Once
the unquestioned finest fighter in the world, his career has
drifted aimlessly the past 3½ years. He all but cleaned
out the heavyweight division from 2002 through 2005, but his
career changed course dramatically after he beat Mirko “CroCop”
Filipovic on Aug. 31, 2005.
Emelianenko
fought the underwhelming Zulu on Dec. 31, 2005, and has yet to
fight anyone since who was a real threat to beat him. He’s
beaten Mark Coleman, Mark Hunt, middleweight Matt Lindland and
MMA neophyte Hong Man Choi in the interim.
Atencio
is counting on plenty of interest in Emelianenko to make Affliction’s
first card a success.
“He’s
almost a mythical, legendary figure in this sport,” Atencio
said of Emelianenko. “He’s the (800)-pound gorilla
of this industry. The hard core fans, you know they’re dying
to see him against someone like Tim (Sylvia). But I think the
casual fans are interested, too. He’s not a guy who you’d
look at and immediately guess he’s a fighter. He looks like
an accountant. But he’s as dangerous as anyone, probably
more so.”
This
isn’t the first time that Emelianenko has headlined a similarly
stacked card, and therein lies Atencio’s conundrum.
Emelianenko
defeated Coleman in Las Vegas on Oct. 21, 2006, in the first
PRIDE card held in the U.S. That show featured an array of the
world’s best talent, including Barnett, Shogun Rua, Kevin
Randleman, Dan Henderson, Vitor Belfort and Robbie Lawler.
But
while there was a good crowd inside the Thomas & Mack Center
on the UNLV campus, far more than half the tickets were given
away. And the pay-per-view was an utter disaster, selling only
around 30,000 units.
Atencio
is well aware of that PRIDE show’s strengths and shortcomings,
but he’s convinced Affliction is set to make an impact upon
the industry.
Affliction
sponsored many of the fighters, paying them thousands of dollars
to wear their merchandise into the cage or ring in various MMA
promotions.
But
Atencio said the seeds of promoting its own show were planted
after UFC president Dana White banned his fighters from wearing
Affliction clothing into the cage last year.
White
disputed that, saying though there long were rumors he was going
to ban Affliction, he never considered it until Affliction decided
to become a promoter.
“The
last thing we want to do is take money out of our fighters’
pockets,” White said. “If there is some idiot T-shirt
guy who wants to pay them a (expletive) of money to wear his
stuff, it’s hard for me to say no. I don’t want to
say no. But think about this. How many T-shirts do you have to
sell if you’re going to pay a guy $100,000 to wear one of
them? I love it. I had no intention of banning them. I loved
seeing my guys take the money off those knuckleheads.”
But
many of those guys are now fighting for Affliction. Atencio has
little interest in engaging White in a public war of words, particularly
since he’s been so successful attracting top-level fighters.
He’s
also convinced that Affliction will succeed despite the track
record PRIDE had in the U.S.
“Any
time you get into a new venture, you’re always leery,”
Atencio said. “But if you do your homework and you commit
to doing things right, you can be successful. We have a great
relationship with the fighters. We’re treating them well.
And we think we have some of the best fighters in the world.
“But
we’re going to run it as a business. We’ll be smart
about how we do things. We’re going into this with our eyes
open.”
And
while every big-name free agent is now rumored to be heading
to Affliction, Atencio said he’s going to run a lean ship.
He said he has between 25 and 30 fighters under contract and,
while he’s going to add fighters, he isn’t looking
to sign anywhere near the more than 200 that the UFC usually
has contracted.
He’s
open to working with other promoters and using fighters from
other promotions on his cards or putting his fighters on other
shows.
“The
UFC is the Q-Tip of the industry,” Atencio said. “To
a large degree, they built the industry. They’ve done a
great job. I respect what they’ve done. But as in any business,
there has to be competition. We feel like we’ve put together
a card that is unmatched.
“This
card is one of the biggest in history, maybe the biggest. People
who come to our show or who (buy it on pay-per-view) are going
to get their money’s worth. These are the kinds of shows
we want to put on every time.”
But
every new promoter runs into problems. The UFC was more than
$40 million in debt in its first five years under its current
ownership before turning itself around. The IFL is on the verge
of collapse. Several other promotions have already gone belly
up.
As
White puts it, “No matter how much money you have, the question
becomes, how deep are you willing to go? How much are you willing
to lose?
“The
UFC brand was a big name before we took it over. And we were
$44 million into it before it got up off the ground, thank God.
It took us five years and a lot of money. And we had so many
things we had to learn, it was scary. It’s going to take
a long time to learn them and you’re going to lose a lot
while you learn. It all comes down to how much pain you’re
willing to take.”
Atencio,
who tentatively has Affliction’s second card planned for
October or November, is undaunted, convinced his product will
be the equal of any and that the loyalty the company has built
among top-level fighters will pay off.
It
doesn’t hurt to have Donald Trump, one of the richest and
most visible men in the country, as part of the promotion either.
If it turns out that Affliction has to reach deep into its pockets,
Trump can reach as deep as anyone.
Trump
aside, Atencio is a low-key guy, but he’s not above saying
he expects Affliction to be in the fight game for a long time
to come.
“I’m
not going to put numbers on it, but I expect the show to be a
success,” he said. “With the guys we have on it, how
can it not be?”
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
Napao's
coach speaks of training
Team Link going after more belts
Team
Link representative Ricardo Funch is already in Texas, where
he will dispute the belt in the main fight of the night of the
77kg category of XFC Xtreme Fighting Championship against Anthony
Waldburger.
The
team has been seeing victory with Gabriel Gladiador and John
Manley and is going to Texas in search of one more conquest.
Direct from Team Link headquarters, the team’s main coach,
Marco Alvan, also spoke of his preparation’s with Napao
for the July 5th challenge, against Justin McCauley, at UFC 86.
“Gabriel
Napao has been working hard. We are doing work with Phill Dixon
in physical conditioning and sparring has been going really well.
We brought in Marcos Santa Cruz, who is a judo and Jiu-Jitsu
black belt and he is helping a lot,” said Alvan.
The
coach also can count on Eric Tavares, a Team Link fighter as
well, who has a fight scheduled for June 27 at Ring of Combat,
in New Jersey.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
UFC's
Moves in New York
Much
has been made about the UFC and it's lobbying efforts in trying
to legalize MMA in the state of New York. New York Magazine gives
us an idea of some of the costs they have incurred:
They
started their New York offensive last year, hiring the political
consultants at Global Strategy Group, a well-connected Democratic
firm, and putting a high-powered Albany lobbying firm on $10,000-a-month
retainer. They gave $25,000 to the state Democratic Party, another
$15,000 to the Assembly Democrats, and have also cut large checks
to Republicans.
The
magazine then goes on to illuminate the major players who need
to be convinced if the sport is to be legalized. The comments
from the Governor can't be encouraging.
The
article also sheds light on some details that are usually swept
under the rug when major publications like Rolling Stone, Forbes,
Etc. come around to do their pieces.
The
Fertittas come from a long line of casino entrepreneurs. Their
grandfather, Anthony, ran gambling halls in Galveston, Texas,
where he was convicted for beating up a Life reporter who came
to town to investigate the scene. Frank Jr., the brothers’
father, was running Las Vegas’s Fremont Hotel when the Feds
busted up the place to break a money-skimming operation (he wasn’t
charged); the ordeal is said to have become the basis for Martin
Scorsese’s Casino.
Source: MMA Payout
|
Histrionics
set up Noons-Diaz rematch
It
took K.J. Noons only 48 seconds to finish one-time training partner
Yves Edwards and retain the Elite XC lightweight title on Saturday
night in Honolulu in a scene that was decidedly 2008.
About
a minute later, it was almost like a time machine had hit the
Neal Blaisdell Center, a longtime hotbed for all forms of combat.
It was like time suddenly shifted back to the 1970s, where Karl
Noons Sr., was a kickboxer and when the arena was known as a
pro wrestling hotbed.
K.J.
Noons was speaking with Showtime announcer Bill Goldberg, a '90s
pro wrestling icon. The show was promoted around "The Return
of the King," with Noons locally billed as "King Karl,"
as the hometown hero, being born and growing up in Hawaii before
moving to the mainland as a teenager.
With
his father, who groomed him to be a fighter from childhood, by
his side, Noons wished his father a happy birthday and happy
Father's Day. Suddenly Nick Diaz, who had stopped Muhsin Corbbrey
earlier in the show to earn the next title shot, came out to
disrupt the proceedings.
"Don't
be scared, homie," said Diaz, with a scowl that they can't
teach in wrestling school. Then Diaz flipped off the Noons family,
and suddenly, it was a real life free-for-all. The corners started
pushing and shoving, some punches were thrown, and Karl Noons
Sr. had his hands all over Nick Diaz as security and Goldberg
were pulling him off.
Diaz,
and brother, UFC star Nate Diaz, then retreated in almost perfect
timing, flipping off the irate fans while announcer Stephen Quadros
said loudly, "I can't wait for the rematch."
Noons
had beaten Diaz via blood stoppage on Nov. 10 in Corpus Christi,
Texas, to become the first Elite XC lightweight champion. Noons,
6-1, took a solid punch from Edwards, but came back and put him
on the deck with a right to the jaw. From there, he overwhelmed
the 11-year veteran with 17 punches and elbows on the ground
before referee Mario Yamasaki had to stop it.
"He's
the man," said Edwards, now 34-14-1, who trained with Noons
in 1999 when both were living in Houston. "There's not much
I can say. He dropped me and I was out."
"He
caught me with a good shot," said Noons, "But I can
take a good shot."
Diaz,
17-7, came in at 169 pounds in a fight contracted at 160 against
Corbbrey, 13-3, who was actually down to 158 when he found out
Diaz wasn't making weight. An agreement was worked out where
Diaz would pay Corbbrey a percentage of his purse for failing
to make weight. Diaz had a huge size difference and took over
in the second round, before finishing Corbbrey at 3:59 of the
third with elbows from the mount.
Former
middleweight champion Murilo "Ninja" Rua, 16-8-1, scored
a one-sided win over Australian Tony Bonello, 16-1-1, with elbows
from the mount in 3:16 of the first round.
Heavyweight
Dave Herman, 11-0, put himself in the position for a possible
title shot by finishing 42-year-old powerhouse Ron Waterman,
15-6-2, in 2:19 via ground and pound.
In
the televised opener, light heavyweight contender Rafael Feijao,
6-1, with Anderson Silva in his corner, quickly finished former
Division II wrestling All-American Wayne Cole, 11-7, in just
2:47 via ground and pound.
During
the broadcast it was officially announced Elite XC's second CBS
show would be on July 26, and would be headlined by a middleweight
title rematch from two weeks ago with champion Robbie Lawler
defending against Scott Smith. The site for the card has yet
to be determined.
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
Quote
of the Day
“The
sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love.”
Jean de La Bruyère, 1645-1696, French Essayist
|
Paragon
Fighter
This Friday,
June 20, 2008
O-Lounge Night Club
|
Hawaii
Xtreme Combat
Saturday,
June 21
Lahaina Civic Center
AMATEURS:
135LBS
(1-0) DAVIN "BAMBAM" BALAGSO (MMA BUILT) VS. (4-0)
ELGEN "BOODA" VERDADERO (SOUTHSIDE BOXING)
205LBS
(0-0) KALEI UAIWA (MAUI ALLIANCE) VS. (2-0) MILLER UALESI (TEAM
RUTHLESS)
145LBS
(0-1) KURRENT COCKETT (TEAM 323) VS. (2-2) GERALD GAMMIT (SOUTHSIDE
BOXING)
185LBS
(0-0) HOKU KALALAU (TEAM KOALI) VS. (2-0) GENO VENTI (808 FIGHT
FACTORY)
PROS:
170LBS
(1-0) IRON KONA KE (TEAM RUTHLESS) VS. (2-2) SEAN RIVEIRA (EVOLUTION
FIGHT CLU
(6-6)
KIMO WOELFEL (EASTSIDAZ) VS. (1-0) MARK "QUICK THRILLS"
BONILLA (HI INTNL BOXING)
160LBS
(3-1) EDDIE RINCON (TEAM 323) VS. (2-2) IKAIKA CHOY FOO (FREELANCE)
155LBS
(5-0) ALAN HINOJOSA (IMPACT ZONE) VS. (2-4) TYLER "PITBULL"
KAHIHIKOLO (KONA BOXING)
(6-3)
TYSON NAHOOIKAIKA (ISLAND WARRIORS) VS. (1-1) IKAIKA MORENO (
GODS ARMY)
235LBS
(3-1) KAEO _link_EE (BANG INC) VS. (2-1) ADAM AKAU (FREELANCE)
135LBS
(2-0-1) DAVID "HOLLYWOOD" BALICAO (808 FF) VS. (5-1)
PENI "TONGAN ASSASIN" TAUFAAO (EASTSIDAZ)
145LBS
(2-2) BRONSON PIEPLER (808 FF) VS. (5-1) PACO WOODS (BJ PENN
MMA)
--NAINOA
DUNG--VS--TBA
**DYLAN CLAY INJURED**
|
ANDERSON
SILVA MOVES TO 205 ON JULY 19 UFC
While everyone else is headed down, Anderson Silva is on his
way up.
Although
the Ultimate Fighting Championship has yet to make its own official
announcement, company president Dana White on Tuesday confirmed
to Dave Meltzer of Yahoo Sports that there will indeed be a July
19 UFC event that will air on Spike TV.
According
to Meltzer, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva will headline
the event, though there is an added twist. He will not be defending
his belt.
While
most fighters today are dropping down as many weight categories
as they possibly can, the champ is headed up. Silva will make
the move to light heavyweight, temporarily, without relinquishing
his middleweight belt, to face James Irvin.
Contacted
by MMAWeekly.com, Irvin on Tuesday confirmed the bout, saying
that he had just received the contract and finalized the deal
earlier in the day. Although other possible match-ups had been
discussed, including one with Wanderlei Silva, Irvin was excited
for the bout with Anderson Silva.
There
had been much speculation in recent weeks that Silva would move
to the 205-pound division, but no one really expected it to come
at this juncture. Most speculation for a possible July 19 card
centered on a main event with some combination of Brandon Vera,
Wanderlei Silva, or Dan Henderson.
In
his comments to Meltzer, White indicated that Silva would still
defend his 185-pound divisional title later in the year, but
indicated a future bout with former light heavyweight champion
Chuck Liddell could be in the works if all goes well on July
19.
In
addition to Silva vs. Irvin, a bout between Hermes Franca and
Frankie Edgar, initially planned for Aug. 9 in Minneapolis, is
being relocated to the July event at the Palms in Las Vegas.
The
bout will be Franca’s first since returning from suspension
for a positive test for steroids in California.
The
UFC’s July 19 is a counter move to Affliction’s planned
mixed martial arts promotional debut, also on July 19, at the
Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. Affliction “Banned”
features a main event of Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia, carrying
a suggested price tag of $39.95 on pay-per-view.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
HERB
DEAN EXPLAINS MARQUARDT POINT DEDUCTIONS
Referee Herb Dean levied two point deductions against Nate Marquardt
in his UFC 85 middleweight bout with Thales Leites, one for an
illegal knee and one for an elbow that landed to the back of
Leites' head. Dean explained the rule of striking to the back
of the head and the point deductions against Marquardt that resulted
in Leites winning by split decision.
Nate
Marquardt landed an illegal knee to the head of the downed Thales
Leites during the second round. The knee was intentional, but
mistimed, garnering the Top 10 ranked Marquardt an immediate
point deduction by referee Herb Dean.
"The
first point deduction was an illegal knee. He kneed him to the
head while he was down," said Dean. "It was a pretty
hard knee. A knee like that, I think I could have taken two points
because of the severity of the damage. But I wasn't convinced
it was done purposely. I think he thought that he was coming
up. I think he intended to throw a legal knee, so I did not take
two points."
Marquardt
was warned earlier in the fight about striking to the back of
the head. In the third round, he was deducted another point for
an elbow that landed to the back of Leites' head as Leites worked
for a takedown.
"He
hit him with an elbow that was on the side of the head behind
the ear. And the zone that I tell the fighters in the dressing
room is that ears back is considered the back of the head,"
Dean told MMAWeekly Radio. "I'm not certain if Nate clearly
understood that because, you know, that's something we've only
been enforcing in MMA for about the last two years.
"That
started when MMA became legalized in California," he explained.
"Dr. Paul Wallace came to a referee seminar that we were
doing and explained to us, diagrammed and explained to us what
is supposed to be the back of the head. I talked to him in detail
about it and then I talked to Armando Garcia who is executive
director, and he said, 'that's what we want to be enforced for
the back of the head, from the ears back.’
"When
I went to Nevada, I told them about it so we would be all on
the same page," continued Dean. "They said that they
were okay with that as the back of the head. That's what they
want us to enforce, so that's what I enforce everywhere.
"It
can be on the side of the head, but if it's behind the ears that's
considered the back of the head," he added. "That's
not what I've always enforced in MMA. I've been refereeing for
nine years. Most of the time I was enforcing the flat of the
neck going up to the top. But when the this sport became regulated,
we need to enforce what the athletic commissions tell us to enforce."
Source: MMA Weekly
|
NOVA
UNIAO CAMP REPORT: LEITES TALKS MARQUARDT
MMAWeekly:
Thales, what were your thoughts on the illegal knee and pile
driver?
Thales
Leites: He did a lot of illegal blows during the fight. It wasn’t
just the illegal knee; it was the pile driver and elbows, too.
For sure he hit the back of my head. After the fight I showed
to Joe Rogan the "ball" that I had in the back of my
head. In my opinion he was obliged to knock me out in the second
round with the illegal knee and I came back to fight without
even knowing where I was properly.
If
he wants to fight me again, I think he should get in line. I'm
looking for the title shot. He had his chance before and he wasn’t
successful so now it's my time.
MMAWeekly:
So you were hurt from the knee?
Thales:
I was completely stunned! But I had to keep fighting.
MMAWeekly:
You “had” to?
Thales:
When the referee stepped in, he was asked me, "Do you want
to fight?" In my mind I was thinking, if I say no, the ref
is going to stop the fight and give the victory to Nate; so every
time I looked at the referee I said "No, I want to fight,
I'm 100 percent." I really wasn't. Everybody could see that
I wasn't 100 percent, but I was saying that because I didn't
know what would happen.
I
didn't see the illegal knee. I knew he did it, but I didn't see
the illegal knee. I was stunned and a little bit out of it at
that moment. After the knee I fought totally on automatic pilot
till the end of the fight.
MMAWeekly:
Did you ever think about giving up at any point?
Thales:
No, I never think of giving up no matter how bad the situation
I find myself in. For me to give up, he'll have to knock me out
or choke me out. I train hard every day to be ready for any situation
during the fight.
MMAWeekly:
Andre Pederneiras didn't seem too happy about the pile driver
that Marquardt performed on you at the end of the fight. The
move is illegal. Were you aware that it was illegal? Did the
move hurt you?
Thales:
I didn't know for sure if the move was illegal. It didn't hurt
me; I saw it coming and I used my arms to protect myself. I don't
know what went through his head at that moment. I think he felt
desperate for not having been able to knock me out during the
fight even after the knee and he knew he was losing the fight.
MMAWeekly:
Do you think Marquardt should have been disqualified?
Thales:
For sure. He committed several illegal blows besides the knee,
which totally changed the way the fight played out. There were
also elbows that certainly did get me on the back of the head
and there was the pile driver at the end of the third round.
MMAWeekly:
Do you think it’s time for a title shot?
Thales:
I think so... but the one that decides that is the UFC and I
am always prepared to fight whoever they want me to fight. I'll
keep training and wait for a call from the UFC.
SUCCESSFUL
DEBUT FOR JOSE ALDO
“Fighting
in the States is a dream come true. I have wanted to fight there
since the beginning of my career.
Nova
Uniao featherweight standout Jose Aldo recently made his U.S.
debut at World Extreme Cagefighting 34. Aldo is coming off the
biggest victory of his career with a TKO victory over Alexandre
Franca “Pequeno” Nogueira.
“I
felt comfortable; not nervous or anything. I knew I had done
my job well in preparing for the fight and went in physically
and mentally prepared. On the day of the fight I felt those butterflies
in my stomach, but that is normal. I was just a bit anxious to
get in there and fight the day before,” said Aldo.
Although
his opponent’s nickname translated as ‘small,’
the significance of Aldo’s successful WEC debut was huge.
Alexandre Franca Nogueira is a former Shooto champion and holds
the record for longest title reign among all fighters in any
organization today. The win was one of the biggest accomplishments
thus far in Aldo’s career.
“I
thought it was a good opportunity for me to move up in my career,
because he is a big name, and I knew I couldn’t let it escape.
I had to win,” commented Aldo when he first found out his
opponent was Nogueira.
”I
feel really good about the results; that was what I wanted. Every
time I go out there to fight I am going to try and make an even
bigger impression than the last until I get my chance at the
title,” he added. “I want to thank everyone for the
support and staying positive. I hope the fans that were there
enjoyed the fight. I will do what it takes to perform even better
next time.”
RIBEIRO
SHOCKS BEEBE
Nova
Uniao-trained fighter Will Ribeiro shocked many fans when he
defeated former WEC 135-pound champion Chase Beebe in his WEC
debut.
"I
feel really happy,” expressed Ribeiro. “Beating the
former WEC champion was really good for my career and my life.
I want to make it all the way to the top. For the win, I just
want to thank God and my team Minotauro Team, Boxe Thai and Andre
Pederneiras' Nova Uniao, where I did most of my training for
the fight."
Ribeiro
started with Tae Kwon Do early in his martial arts career and
later focused on Muay Thai and boxing. He was part of the Brazilian
National boxing team and trained the Nogueira brothers (Antonio
Rodrigo and Antonio Rogerio) at Minotauro Team.
“I
put on a good fight. After thinking about it, I don't think I
made any mistake during the fight. I had chances to knock him
out in the first round, but unfortunately it didn't happen because
he's a first-rate fighter, too. I had a lot of trouble making
weight; this was the first time I fought at this weight,”
revealed the Boxe Thai fighter. “I think in the future,
though, I'll be better adapted to this weight class. I should
fight even better once I'm used to the weight.”
Defeating
Beebe was a huge victory for Ribeiro and it definitely opened
the eyes of many fans.
“My
goal is to get the belt. I will fight anyone to get there. The
way I see it, if I beat the last champion in the first fight,
I should fight the current champion in my next,” he said.
“I'd like to thank the WEC for giving me this opportunity.
I guarantee they'll like my performances in the WEC.”
MISCELLANEOUS
NOVA UNIAO NOTES:
-
Leo Santos and Eduardo Dantas are both scheduled to fight at
Shooto Brazil 7 on June 28. The upcoming event will feature some
“Brazil vs. Argentina” matches.
-
Leandro “Batata” Silva recently returned to Rio de
Janeiro to prepare for the upcoming Fury Fight 185-pound Grand
Prix.
-
Ronys Torres qualified for Jungle Fight at the ‘Jungle Fight
Warriors Trials’ event.
-
Georges St. Pierre recently visited Nova Uniao. The UFC Champion
briefly sparred with Leo Santos and Wagnney Fabiano, his first
jiu-jitsu coach and friend. St. Pierre has been training at Gracie
Barra in preparation for his upcoming fight against Jon Fitch
at UFC 87 in August.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
UFC
ACTIVELY PURSUING JULY 19 EVENT
Amidst much rumor and speculation, there is still much rumor
and speculation. MMAWeekly.com, however, has confirmed with multiple
sources that the Ultimate Fighting Championship is nearing the
finalization of a July 19 event to counter the pay-per-view debut
of the new mixed martial arts promotion from Affliction.
There
has been much talk of a main event between Wanderlei Silva and
Brandon Vera. That bout is still in question, though Yahoo Sports’
Dave Meltzer reported on Monday that Silva turned down the bout
due to lack of time to prepare. Whether that bout comes to fruition
or not, sources indicate that other fighters are in final negotiations
to compete for the UFC on July 19.
The
UFC’s event, if finalized, is expected to take place at
The Palms in Las Vegas and air live on the promotion’s basic
cable television partner Spike TV. The network currently denies
that there is an event scheduled for that date, but has consistently
worked closely with the UFC to facilitate its programming needs.
Affliction
has partnered with billionaire Donald Trump for its MMA venture,
Affliction Entertainment. Its first event, dubbed “Banned,”
features a main event between Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia,
along with several other UFC and Pride veterans, especially heavyweights.
Affliction’s
initial offering is of course, pay-per-view, expected to carry
a suggested retail price tag of $39.95.
If
the UFC’s counter-offering does materialize, it is unlikely
to carry much star power, as most of the organization’s
premier fighters are already scheduled for other events. The
UFC does have a trump card of its own, however, in Spike TV.
The network is available in 96.1 million homes for no additional
charge.
All
sources indicate that a final decision should be forthcoming
on Tuesday, with a same day announcement if the event is solidified.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
NIGHTMARE
PAST, SANCHEZ EYES FIORAVANTI & TITLE
Diego
Sanchez came out on the winning end of 17 professional bouts
before losing a mixed martial arts fight. Then, out of nowhere,
the 26-year-old winner of the inaugural season of The Ultimate
Fighter inexplicably lost… not only once, but two times
back-to-back.
Of
course, the losses were to current Top 5 welterweights and teammates
Jon Fitch (No. 2) and Josh Koscheck (No. 4). Both losses were
by decision and both are fights that Sanchez desperately wants
back.
“Rematches
with Koscheck and Fitch are definitely a part of my future. Those
guys ain’t going nowhere and I ain’t going nowhere,”
he said in a recent interview with MMAWeekly.com.
Despite
those losses, Sanchez has stayed the course in the Ultimate Fighting
Championship’s 170-pound division. He unloaded a flurry,
punching David Bielkheden into submission at UFC 82 in March,
and now prepares to step into the Octagon with American Top Team
fighter Luigi Fioravanti at The Ultimate Fighter 7 finale on
Saturday night.
According
to him, he hasn’t even considered dropping down a weight
class like so many other fighters recently, and sees no reason
to. “Until something happens, like say me getting beat up,
then I’m not going to go down,” explained Sanchez.
“I know in my heart and in my mind that I have what it takes
to beat (Georges) St. Pierre, (Matt) Hughes, B.J. (Penn); all
those guys.”
All
three of those fighters are in his future plans. “The only
thing I see in my future in this sport is to become the world
champ. I want to fight with GSP. I want to fight B.J. Penn, and
maybe Matt Hughes. They’re the three top guys that I’d
like to fight.
“If
I could have it my way, a picture perfect story, I’d like
to go in there and win the title from whoever it may be and get
a rematch with Koscheck for the title. That’d be perfect.”
But
it’s not a picture perfect world, far from it, and Sanchez
has to continue on the path begun with Bielkheden and right his
ship before he can legitimately claim a spot at the head of crowded
line of UFC welterweight vying for a title shot.
With
Thiago Alves’ recent dismantling of the aforementioned Hughes;
Koscheck’s only recent misstep being to the current champion,
St. Pierre, and being queued up to face Chris Lytle in July;
and Hughes and Matt Serra’s grudge match all having possible
title implications; it is going to be difficult for Sanchez to
elbow his way to the fore.
No
matter his future aspirations, he can’t afford to look past
Fioravanti on Saturday night. A loss at this juncture would be
catastrophic to Sanchez’s to his quest for ultimate glory.
It seems that he has been taking Fioravanti seriously, though,
and has much respect for his opponent’s pedigree.
“I’ve
got a lot of respect for him. I think he’s tough. He’s
more of a striker. It’s a good fight for me. He’s actually
very well rounded,” said Sanchez, who, knowing how strong
ATT is in all departments, but especially in jiu-jitsu, has actually
been working about 60 percent ground to 40 percent stand-up in
preparations.
“I’ve
always been a ground fighter and now I’ve just took it to
the next level. I want to be known as the best on the ground,”
he stated.
Not
only has he upped his ground game, but also his move last year
from Albuquerque, N.M. to San Diego has unleashed an array of
new, and impressive, training partners.
“It’s
a career move and it’s a life move out here in S.D. I’ve
put in some good time in New Mexico. The way I look at it, there
ain’t nothing wrong with some change. I think it’s
a good thing. I get to train with one of my jiu-jitsu heroes,
Saulo Ribeiro,” said Sanchez.
“My
main training partners are Fabricio “Morango” (Camoes),
and Gilbert Melendez comes down and helps me out too whenever
we can help each other out. Me and him definitely keep the intensity
level on 200,000. We don’t take no rounds off. We go full
blast. Jake Shields has a hurt back, so he hasn’t been down
for this camp, but he also comes down sometimes.”
He
indicated that the transition to San Diego has taken some time,
but that everything is starting to click for him in Southern
California. And he plans on showing that at The Ultimate Fighter
finale.
“All
my best performances… have all been on Spike (TV) and I
hope to add Luigi Fioravanti to the list,” said Sanchez.
“I’m looking to go in and dominate Luigi Fioravanti
and see what they got next for me.”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
The
Greatest Man Who Ever Lived
Nick
Diaz is the greatest man who’s ever lived. He once beat
up Joe Riggs in the hospital after a tough fight. He got high
and still beat the shit out of PRIDE pretty boy Takanori Gomi.
He stormed out of the ring after the doctor stopped his fight
with KJ Noons. He’s just angry and a little crazy. So what
happened after KJ Noons stopped Yves Edwards via hate crime should
have been no surprise.
Diaz
hit the cage in pure heel mode. Noons was fresh off the best
win of his career and in front of his home fans. When he flashed
the double finger salute to Noons, things got a little out of
hand. Even KJ’s old man got into the action. “I’m
kind of disappointed that those antics overshadowed a great athlete
like Yves Edwards,” Noons said after the fight. “You
train so hard for a title fight and then you’ve got this
low class person coming in and talking trash.”
When
the dust settled, Elite XC had just hyped a new main event match.
Diaz is the kind of fighter that draws a natural reaction, with
a painted on sneer and a bad attitude. Noons is like the prototypical
70’s wrestling babyface. He’s probably got a great
dropkick to go along with that pretty right hand. It’s the
perfect matchup.
So,
of course, the MMA media hated it. Diaz interrupted one of those
shows of mutual respect hardcore fans find so loveable and regular
fans turn the channel on. It just kind of underscores an ever
pertinent point: if MMA writers ran MMA companies, MMA companies
would be run out of business. Heated feuds draw money. Scary
and seemingly invincible champions draw money. It looks like
Gary Shaw is serious about drawing money.
DREAM
4
Shinya
Aoki is called “Tobikan Judan,” meaning “tenth
degree black belt in jumping locks.” He’s the best
fighter in the world in his weight class and he showed it against
former Olympic Silver Medalist Katsuhiko Nagata. Aoki dominated
Nagata, even bodylocking him and tossing the Greco-Roman wrestler
to the mat. He got the submission with a gogoplata from the top
which was so wacky that even Blue Panther shook his head and
called bullshit. Aoki has beaten JZ, Joachim Hansen, and Akira
Kikuchi. He’ll get his chance against a true legend when
he fights Caol Uno in the semifinals of DREAM’s Lightweight
Grand Prix. The other matchup is equally good as Eddie Alvarez
will face Tatsuya Kawajiri.
While
one Japanese saw his star rising, another was approaching the
end of a storied career. Fearsome striker Melvin Manhoef absolutely
blitzed Kazushi Sakuraba in the main event. SAKU was knocked
down by a high kick and took so much punishment on the ground
that I had to do a double take to see if DREAM had brought in
Steve Mazzagatti to ref the fight. If Sakuraba isn’t going
to retire, he needs to stay in the legends division where he
can grapple around with other washed up stars of yesteryear like
Kiyoshi Tamura. A young and quick striker is beyond his ability
these days.
I
won’t go into detail about all the fights here. There was
a liveblog last night at Total MMA.
Must
See Fights From Last Night:
1.
Jason Miller v. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza: Strong performance
by both men. Jacare is living up to the hype and Miller continues
to look unsubmittable.
2. Hideo Tokoro v. Darren Uyenoyama: Great first round.
3. KJ Noons v. Yves Edwards: Noons looks for real. If they want
to promote him as one of their top stars, just make sure to keep
him away from wrestlers.
4. Gegard Mousasi v. Yoon Dong-Sik: Another great first round.
5. Rafael Feijao’s v.Wayne Cole: Cole, more than ever, wants
to make sure you don’t mistake him with Devin Cole.
Source: Total MMA
|
Boxing
starves for super fights, unlike MMA
LOS
ANGELES – With two hulking bodyguards serving as bookends,
Floyd “Money” Mayweather spun heads as he made each
step up the Staples Center stairs.
Even
among the throng of celebrities that only an NBA Finals game
here can produce, the 5-foot-8, 145-pounder cast an oversized
presence, undeniably an A-lister, undeniably a throwback to the
days when boxing champs were such attractions.
Mayweather
was leaving Game 3 of the Finals early Tuesday. It wasn’t
because he had to get to bed early for a day of training for
what was expected to be a mega-rematch with Oscar De La Hoya
in September. He was heading into the L.A. night with a crew
seven deep, the fight game no longer top of mind for the recently
retired champ.
With
each step, the 31-year-old, arguably the biggest star in boxing’s
present, moved forward while casting doubts on boxing’s
future.
In
an era when fans of big-time fights have an alternative in mixed
martial arts, a sport with a slew of looming super matches, how
does boxing handle the loss of one of its now rare crossover
stars capable of producing highly-hyped events?
While
it searches for a way to salvage a marquee fight this year –
Mayweather-De La Hoya II was expected to be at least the second
richest fight in history – you could almost see the boxing
game smarting at the sucker punch of Mayweather’s early
retirement.
Where
does the sport go when it’s two biggest stars are aging
(De La Hoya) and retired (Mayweather); when it isn’t exciting
fights that make headlines but past champs’ weight (Mike
Tyson) or financial troubles (Evander Holyfield)?
Meanwhile,
a couple hundred miles away in Las Vegas, Dana White, president
of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, was staring at a rich
array of major fights to headline his big-selling monthly pay-per-view
cards.
None
bigger than the possible clash of champions between welterweight
Georges St. Pierre and lightweight B.J. Penn (ranked No. 2 and
3 respectively in Yahoo! Sports poll of top pound for pound MMA
fighters).
White
may make that the headliner of his annual New Year’s Eve
card. Or maybe his Super Bowl one. Either way, it has a strong
chance to be the richest pay-per-view in MMA history. It will
feature two dynamic, popular fighters who show the breadth of
skills that have made the sport white hot with new fans.
Whether
it is White’s stable of great fighters or the high-powered
Affliction promotion next month that will feature a heavyweight
clash between former UFC champion Tim Sylvia and the sport’s
best at that weight, Fedor Emelianenko, the headliner possibilities
continue to grow in MMA.
For
boxing, who knows? Just Tuesday, British welterweight Ricky Hatton
turned down the chance to replace Mayweather against De La Hoya.
While there are plenty of good fights out there, the biggest
names, the ones that drive casual interest, appear to be floundering.
Boxing
and MMA don’t have to be competitive; there ought to be
room for both and each sport has its own core of fans. But the
juxtaposition is striking, especially for the younger market
seeking something to hook on with.
Just
last month Penn used the moments after an exciting defense of
his lightweight title to publicly plea with White. Penn wanted
to eschew an easier title defense in lieu of a crack at a super
fight with St. Pierre, a man bigger and just as skilled who defeated
Penn when the latter fought as a welterweight in 2006.
The
economics of the two sports drives this reality. Mayweather has
made so much money (an estimated $50 million in the last 15 months
alone) he can retire in his prime. Hatton got so rich off his
share of the pay-per-view buys in England for his loss to Mayweather
that he doesn’t have to jump at De La Hoya’s demands.
And
as pathetic as Holyfield’s story has become, he did once
earn enough money to buy (at least temporarily) a 109-room Georgia
mansion on no less than Evander Holyfield Highway.
In
MMA, no fighter is making anywhere near that kind of money. Even
in the UFC, they have to fight, and keep fighting, to make a
living. There is an inherent unfairness in that disparity, but
it is also the reality of a growing sport.
It’s
not only about better contracts for boxers. Due to the sport’s
acceptance in the mainstream media, boxers can be bigger stars.
It’s not just with coverage from newspapers, radio and television,
De La Hoya is a first guest “Tonight Show” kind of
personality.
MMA
can’t get anywhere near that. While with each day that gap
might close a little, no MMA champion would have attracted the
attention Mayweather did Tuesday (although rookie Kimbo Slice
might). None have his earning potential.
For
fans, especially young ones, however, the reality of the business
hardly matters.
They
want fights. They want action. They want champions squaring off
against each other, clashes to debate and anticipate.
One
sport has its superstars begging for shots at each other, pleading
for a chance to show everyone what they’ve got.
The
other has them retired, relaxed and rolling out of NBA arenas,
no need for boxing even if boxing may need them more now than
ever.
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
JOHN
ALESSIO A FREE AGENT, FACES SPRATT FRIDAY
John Alessio may have ended his last fight in controversy, but
he looks to get back to his winning ways Friday night. Alessio,
who’s fought in a variety of shows throughout his career,
will be fighting “The Secret Weapon” Pete Spratt in
Banner Promotion’s “Free for All” event in Las
Vegas at the Thomas & Mack Center.
While
fighting for World Extreme Cagefighting for his last six bouts,
there was some confusion by some fans about the status of Alessio’s
contract with the promotion. Alessio explained the situation
on MMAWeekly Radio recently. “My last fight against Brock
Larson was the last fight on my contract, and basically we didn't
come to an agreement on re-signing.”
With
Alessio’s fighting future unsure right now following his
upcoming fight with Spratt, he didn’t rule out a return
to the WEC, especially considering how his last fight ended.
He unintentionally kneed Brock Larson to the head when he was
on the ground. Larson could not continue and Alessio was disqualified.
“I
feel like there's some unfinished business there, especially
with Brock Larson,” explained Alessio. “I won three
fights in a row and the unfortunate thing with Larson happened.
I was earning my way back to a title shot and I feel like that's
some unfinished business. Other than that, I'm just looking to
fight the best guys possible. I don't really care what show it
is.”
The
fight turned personal for Alessio after Larson made some accusations
against him following the bout. In that regard, Alessio would
love to have another fight with Larson. “He wanted to go
out and call me a cheater. It was unintentional. So, yeah, there
is definitely some animosity between us. Honestly, I would fight
him in my backyard if I could,” he said.
“Coming
in saying I'm a cheater, that was my 40th pro fight and I've
never been deducted one point in my entire career for any illegal
moves. For him to say that is outrageous. And that's pretty much
fighting words right there.”
Not
that Alessio is looking past Spratt, but he has a couple of potential
offers following this fight. “I have a few things in the
works after this fight, but nothing set in stone. I have to get
past Pete Spratt first. I do have something pretty big in the
works, but I can't release any information yet.”
Alessio
trains out of Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas along with some of
the best fighters in the world. Because of this, he feels like
he’s always learning something new. “We have the best
gym in the world. We have tons of guys who are always popping
in and training. It never gets stale here. Always learning new
things. It's fantastic.”
Spratt
is not to be looked past though. He is a good kickboxer who holds
some wins over quality opponents. Alessio realizes the problems
that Spratt poses, but he isn’t too worried about it. “He
is a good striker. His weakness is the ground game, but I'm sure
he's working on it. I plan to go out there and test myself on
the feet. I've been working with Shawn Tompkins. I'm not going
to shy away from a stand-up fight.”
“The
Natural” believes that his stand-up game is equitable to
Spratt’s and that he’s in condition to take it to him.
“That's what he likes to do. But I really don't think his
stand-up is that much better than mine. He might have better
kicks. I really think my punching ability is better than his
is. I'm going to use a lot of movement and have him fight at
my pace. I'm in great shape. I'm training three times a day.
I'm ready to go 15 minutes if need be, but I want to get this
over in the first round.”
After
his fight with Spratt, Alessio wants to continue to stay busy
and get as many fights as possible. “I'm looking to get
a fight in July or August. I want to test myself and make myself
well-known.”
However,
first things first, Alessio has to worry about getting past Spratt.
“Pete Spratt is going to sleep one way or another. You don't
even need to have judges ringside for that fight – guaranteed!”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Adrenaline
stumbles out of the gate
When
launching Adrenaline MMA, Monte Cox spoke of his plan to model
the promotion on the Bay Area power Strikeforce. One of the key
components of success mentioned by Monte was a strong showing
at the gate, but judging by the early numbers the promotion seems
to still have a ways to go to measure up to Scott Coker's creation
from a business perspective.
MMAJunkie's
Steve Sievert reports attendance of around 2,000 while Sherdog
is a little more generous with an estimate of 2,500. Either number
represents a weak gate for such a large metro area. Cox commented
to MMAJunkie:
"I
talked to other promoters in music and other things, and everything
seems to be down right now," he said. "Last time I
did a show here, we had people driving 100 to a 150 miles. We
didn't get that tonight. It's hard. A 150 now is costing you
70 bucks, and I think people factor that in. Plus, the Quad Cities,
where we normally draw really well from, is flooded. We just
didn't have a lot of things go our way."
With
no big stars on the card the payroll was likely on the low side,
but with that level of attendance I doubt the card was profitable.
While the show had several local fighters on the card, the show
lacked a mainstream name or charismatic fighter to break through
to a larger audience. Strikeforce has been lucky in that respect
in that they have two charismatic guys in Cung Le and Frank Shamrock
that both have strong local ties from which to draw strong crowds.
Next week's card being head lined by Gilbert Melendez should
be an interesting test of how well Strikeforce can draw without
either of their big two on the card.
The
September card being put on by Adrenaline will face much more
pressure at the gate. On that card will be Adrenaline's two big
ticket signings, Tim Sylvia and Ben Rothwell. Rothwell is set
to make $200,000 for his Adrenaline fights and one has to believe
that Sylvia is making somewhere slightly north of that, so right
there you are looking at a half a million on payroll. If you
are going to bring in half way decent names to face these two,
you are looking at probably another 100 grand and then you have
to fill out the undercard as well. Adrenaline will have to have
a close to capacity crowd to break even with those kind of salaries
being thrown around.
Source: MMA Payout
|
Quote
of the Day
"Let
us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business
better than we do."
Michel
de Montaigne, 1533-1592, French Writer
|
Fighters'
Club TV Tonight!
Channel 52, Tuesdays
at 7:00 PM
FCTV episode
58 will run in our normal timeslot of 7pm on Oceanic Channel
52 Olelo Oahu Tuesday nights.
Episode
59 features:
Highlights
from the Grapple Fest
Comments,
Questions, and Suggestions to: fctv@onzuka.com
|
UFC
still wants Liddell vs Rashad
Bout to take place at UFC 88
UFC
85 is in the past, but curiousity about what would have happened
in the cancelled fights between Chuck Liddell and Mauricio Shogun
or between Chuck Liddell and Rashad Evans still rattles around
in fight fans' heads. The three athletes mentioned were injured
and were unable to make it to the event in London, in the Brazilian's
case, the knee injury was more serious, and he should make his
octagon return at the end of the year.
So,
as the "Iceman" and the undefeated wrestler recover,
the UFC head honchos seem ready to match Liddell against Evans.
According to information from ESPN, both have accepted and the
next step is to make it official by putting the pen to paper.
UFC
president Dana White had confirmed the Mohican's participation
in the main event of UFC 88, the first time MMA invades the city
of Atlanta, Georgia, and that is where the bout should take place.
Stay tuned to GRACIEMAG.com for more fresh UFC news.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
Gesias
talk about his recovery
The
defeat at a GP could leave an athlete down, but for Gesias Cavalcante
it had a positive side. The two fights he made against Shinya
Aoki at lightweight Dream GP, being eliminated in the second
one, forced Gesias to find a little time to take care of his
body, punished after a long bouts sequence since the K-1, and
do a knee surgery. "I had this surgery two weeks ago and
doing physiotherapy. The recovery is been fast, now I have a
new knee. The defeat has not changed in any way, indeed changed
for better. I am having a time to recover myself from injuries
and giving my body a rest", told the Brazilian, which has
a forecast for his back. "I hope to be back in the end of
the year or, if there isn’t any event, in the next year",
said the ATT athlete.
Source: Tatame
|
Not
making weight needs tougher consequences...
Within the last couple of weeks, an issue has arose that usually
hasn’t caused too much of a fuss in the past when it comes
to weigh-ins. Fighters usually make their contracted weight since
they are professional athletes and are being paid to cut down
to their respective weight classes. Unfortunately for the fighters,
fans, and promotions, not everyone is able to make weight as
easily as the next person.
Today,
Thiago Alves, who is scheduled to take on Matt Hughes in the
UFC 85 main event, missed his weight by nearly 4 pounds. He weighed
in at a bloated 174 pounds.
To
most fans, four pounds may not seem like a lot of weight to stir
the pot over. Four pounds can easily be overcome by a small amount
of strength, but the bigger issue here is that Thiago cut down
from a larger weight. Obviously, only cutting down to 174 is
going to allow him to be a bit bigger come fight time. Will this
be a factor? Probably not, and there are other issues that arise
when a fighter doesn’t make weight.
The
most important issue is professionalism. These are professional
athletes being paid to make their weight, fight their fights,
and make a lot of money doing so if they can be successful. In
order to make those dreams a reality, each fighter must rely
on their opponents to make their scheduled weights as well. In
this case, Hughes agreed to take fight with the overage, but
it’s likely he will get a cut of the purse.
I
ask this question… at what point does someone speak up and
ask why these fighters continually miss weight without further
consequences. Do we seriously have to put up with Gina Carano
missing her weight nearly every single fight?
My
solution… multiple offenders should have an escalating scale
of disciplinary action. While the purse percentage is a perfect
way to hurt these fighters who are missing weight, making weight
should be a priority as a fighter gets close to their fight date.
Gina Carano is making some good money, and 10% here and there
may not hurt her much. How about we push some percentage on top
of that if she misses weight again and again? What if 50% of
her purse was on the line? Would she make weight then? I would
think it would be a huge priority then.
Source: MMA Analyst
|
EliteXC
Return of the King Review
This
was a strong show with good pacing, much better than the CBS
debut which seemed to drag. EliteXC has been criticized for too
much one sided booking with its prospects, but I like the approach.
The goal right now should be establishing its young stars and
grooming them for matches that mean something.
Ideally,
the rest of this year should be spent building stars through
careful booking and establishing credible champions. Then in
2009, with the benefit of smart booking and network television
exposure, ideally the company will be in a position to run pay-per-view
which is the key to its financial success at this point. This
was a fun, easy to watch, entertaining show, but most importantly
it left me excited about several potential match-ups which is
exactly what the product should do.
Rafael
Feijao and Dave Herman both looked like stars and for my money
I would have rather featured them the CBS broadcast that Brett
Rogers and/or Joe Villasenor-Phil Baroni. KJ Noons was also very
impressive. Hopefully, he'll be available for the third CBS show.
Nick Diaz gave an underwhelming performance in the cage, but
brought real heat to the build-up for a rematch with Noons.
My
only complaint about the show was Bill Goldberg. I've never completely
understood the idea of using Goldberg to start with, but previously
he's seemed tolerantly ineffective. Last night he was an actual
distraction to the broadcast. I'm not sure what his role should
be, but it shouldn't be in the ring as an interviewer. That job
is about putting the talent over and Goldberg, by his mannerism
and sheer size, often trivializes the talent.
The
biggest news of the night was the official announcement of a
7/26 return date on CBS. Robbie Lawler-Scott Smith II will headline,
but what will be underneath is anyone's guess. All reports are
that this is sooner than EXC wanted to come back, but everybody's
gotta serve somebody and CBS is undoubtedly EXC's master (as
principle financial backer and television partner) at this point
in the game.
It's
hard to imagine the second show putting up numbers in the same
ballpark as the first thanks to a host of factors (less time
to promote, novelty lessened, stars not available), but it could
be a blessing. CBS should be willing to let them breath (i.e.
not worry so much about the numbers) given those factors which
would give EXC a chance to really promote the rumored third show
in October.
That
should start with announcing the date and featured bouts on the
July broadcast. The early direction for October looks like Kimbo-Rogers
and Carano fighting to establish a women's champion. I don't
like Rogers as an opponent for Kimbo, but that genie may be out
of the bottle at this point. KJ Noons v. Nick Diaz is the hottest
match they have at this point coming off last night's pull apart
and should be on CBS.
Source: MMA Payout
|
RUSSOW
ROLLS AS ADRENALINE MMA DEBUTS
HOFFMAN
ESTATES, Ill. – Action hungry fans were satiated on Saturday
night at the Adrenaline MMA show at the Sears Centre Arena. Amidst
the fans that came out to attend the promotion’s debut were
some famous names including former UFC heavyweight champions
Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia, and former UFC lightweight champion
Jens Pulver. The atmosphere was ripe for combat in the circle
of steel.
The
main event of the evening was supposed to have been between Jeff
Monson and Mike Russow. Due to a hand injury, however, Monson
was replaced by Jason Guida (the brother of UFC fan favorite
Clay Guida). It was a heart wrenching main event between the
Chicago police officer, Russow, and the MMA veteran. The fans
were on their feet and it was impossible to tell who the favorite
was with the crowd chanting both names with extreme prejudice.
The match was primarily a grappling contest, but ended early
on in the first round with Russow sinking in a guillotine choke
with Guida up against the cage.
The
co-main event of the evening was nearly as painful to watch,
as it was for Terry Martin to compete, as he was on the receiving
end of multiple shots to the groin from Daiju Takase. In fact,
the fight ended due to referee stoppage (disqualification) from
too many kicks to the groin; a victory for Martin, but perhaps
at the cost of no future offspring.
It
looked as if Bart Palaszewski was in trouble during the first
round of his bout with Jeff Cox, who was displaying his dominant
ground game. That all changed, however, when Palaszewski scored
the knockout of the night with an incredible high kick to end
it all in the second round.
International
Fight League heavy hitter Rory Markham scored the quickest win
of the night after evading a flying kick by Jay Ellis, and ending
the bout at only 0:57 of round one with a triangle choke.
The
main card showed an extraordinary amount of talent right out
the door. Clay French impressed everyone in the house with his
incredibly dominant wrestling abilities. To say that he dominated
Massouh on the ground would be a gross understatement. The bout
came to an end with the sound of Massouh tapping from French's
rear naked choke.
It
looked as though neither of the heavyweights on the undercard
came to actually show a fight. Herc Hayes and Kerry Schall had
the fans in an uproar of negativity as they both gassed early
on, and went all three rounds throwing lackluster strikes. You
could only look around and wonder if there was anyone left awake
at the end for Hayes to be announced the winner.
One
of the more notable preliminary bouts was between up and comers
Mike Stumpf and Dom O'Grady. O'Grady came in with a flawless
5-0 record, but walked out with a scar to his name when Stumpf
scored a vicious TKO late in the second round.
The
event started out strong with Joe Pearson defeating John Hosman
early into round one by a textbook triangle choke.
The
night was full of excitement and skilled fighters, and Adrenaline
MMA put on an incredible display of mixed martial arts action.
It's safe to say with the skill of the fighters and support of
the fans, Adrenaline MMA is here to stay.
-Mike
Russow def. Jason Guida by Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 2:13,
R1
-Terry
Martin def. Daiju Takase by Disqualification (Groin Kicks) at
3:35, R2
-Forrest
Petz def. Brian Gassaway by Unanimous Decision, R3
-Bart
Palaszewski def. Jeff Cox by KO at 3:07, R2
-Rory
Markham def. Jay Ellis by Submission (Triangle Choke) at 0:57,
R1
-Clay
French def. Jameel Massouh by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at
3:18, R2
-Herc
Hayes def. Kerry Schall by Unanimous Decision
-Aaron
Rosa def. Ron Fields by TKO at 0:34, R2
-Hector
Urbina def. Dave Keiczkowski by TKO at 1:19, R2
-Tom
Belt def. Marcus Levesseur by TKO at 4:10, R1
-Mike
Stumpf def. Dom O'Grady by TKO at 3:53, R2
-Joe
Jordan def. Ryan Williams by Unanimous Decision, R3
-Louis
Taylor def. Adam Maciejewski by Unanimous Decision, R3
-Joe
Pearson def. John Hosman by Triangle Choke at 1:42, R1
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Carcara
discusses silver medal
Braulio already talks of rematch with Galvao
Coming
off a knee injury, Braulio Estima decided to sign up for the
2008 Jiu-Jitsu World Championship at the last minute, even with
second thoughts. For the simple fact he guaranteed his presence
among medium heavyweights, the Gracie Barra black belt was instantly
pointed to as one of the favorites to take the title.
Such
regard was not without reason, the Ze Radiola student is a two-time
world champion and did not dispute the tournament in 2007 due
to the same injury that has been setting him back in recent times.
Carcara did not disappoint his fans and with a great deal of
effort managed to tap all his adversaries out up until the final
against Andre Galvao, when he lost by submission.
Back
in England, where he has a Jiu-Jitsu academy, the fighter spoke
to GRACIEMAG.com about the hardships he's faced in recovering.
"I'd
like to emphasize that I had serious surgery on the 22nd of January
and went 8 weeks without putting my foot on the ground. This
means that after two months I had to do rehabilitation to strengthen
the muscles of the leg. With that, I only had four weeks to prepare
for the worlds. I wasn't sure about fighting, but I decided to
at the last minute, since I was kept out of it in 2007. Unfortunately
I lost in the final by submission, but considering the seriousness
of the injury and the long duration of time I was kept out of
training, coming back to the Worlds and managing to win the silver
medal meant a lot to me. I owe a lot to my physical conditioning
coach, Stevie B, and my students and friends. Reaching the final
was a win for me. Andre (Galvao) was better prepared than I and
deserved it without a shadow of doubt. Next year, I'll be 100%,
so we'll have a rematch," explained Braulio.
Source: Gracie Magazine |
Quote
of the Day
"I
hated every minute of training, but I said, "Don't quit.
Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.""
Muhammad
Ali, Legendary American Boxer
|
Fighters'
Club Radio Mondays!
FIGHTERS
CLUB RADIO
MONDAY MAY 19
9AM-10AM
RIGHT AFTER LEAHEY & LEAHEY
AM
1500 RADIO
"THE TEAM, HAWAII'S SPORTING NEWS"
FAN
LINE: 296-1500
THANKS
TO OUR SPONSORS:
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|
Maui Jiu-Jitsu BJJ
Tournament Date Announced!
On July 26th, Maui Jiu-Jitsu will host another one of their great
tournaments on the Valley isle. Stay tuned for more details as
they become available.
Start planning your travel arrangements now to avoid last minute
troubles. Check out the Hawaii Super Ferry and Hawaiian Airlines
recently has shown lower prices than Go Airlines.
|
ELITE
XC RETURN OF THE KING RESULTS & PLAY-BY-PLAY
EliteXC “Return of the King” takes place tonight in
Honolulu. The event is headlined by a 160-pound lightweight title
bout between defending champion K.J. Noons and UFC veteran Yves
Edwards.
-K.J.
Noons vs. Yves Edwards (Lightweight Title)
R1 – After a prolonged exchange, Noons drops Edwards with
a right hand to the chin, follows him down and viciously attacks
with a assortment of punches and forearms, not giving Edwards
any chance to recover and finishes the fight, defending his belt
in stunning fashion.
K.J.
Noons def. Yves Edwards by TKO (Strikes) at 0:48, R1
-Nick
Diaz vs. Muhsin Corbbrey
R1 – They feel each other out in the early going. Diaz lands
a nice elbow as the two clinch about a minute-and-half into the
bout. They trade a few uppercuts and knees before Corbbbrey lands
a hard right hand then back to kind of feeling each other out
with various strikes. Corbbrey lands a couple more hard right
hands, but they are single shots, not in combination. With a
minute to go, Corbrrey lands a solid combination followed by
a kick to Diaz’ body. Then Diaz fires back with a strong
uppercut. Diaz finishes strong, working shots to the body of
Corbbrey. Close round.
MMAWeekly
scores the round 10-9 for Corbbrey.
R2
- Corbbrey lands a few good single shots in the opening minute.
Diaz starting to be more effective with his jab, tags Corbbrey
more frequently now. Diaz starts talking to Corbbrey to engage
and ups the pace of his combinations. Corbbrey is landing harder
shots, but Diaz, his face now bloodying, may be edging ahead
due to his level of activity. Diaz lands a few combinations then
clinches, lands a couple of knees and takes Corbbrey to the mat
as the round ends.
MMAWeekly
scores the round 10-9 for Diaz
R3
– Diaz immediately starts stalking Corbbrey, picking him
apart with combinations and then clinches and takes him to the
mat, landing in side control. Diaz starts working for the Kimura,
then transitions to an armbar attempt which Corbbrey defends.
Diaz starts peppering Corbbrey while standing in his guard. Diaz
moves to full mount and starts hammering down punches on Corbbrey
to get the stoppage.
Nick
Diaz def. Muhsin Corbbrey by TKO (Strikes) at 3:59, R3
-Murilo
“Ninja” Rua vs. Tony Bonello
R1 – Bonello stormed Rua with punches, but then quickly
jumped guard. Ninja wasted no time passing guard and moving to
side control and started to drive home elbows to the body and
forearms to the face of Bonello. Ninja trapped Bonello’s
right arm under his leg and punished Bonello with forearms before
transitioning to full mount, dropping down bombs, and then returning
to side control. Ninja then mixed forearms and elbows from body
to head, moved to knee on belly and then dropped some heavy right
hands down, causing Yamasaki to stop the bout.
Murilo
“Ninja” Rua def. Tony Bonello by TKO (Strikes) at 3:16,
R1
-Dave
Herman vs. Ron Waterman
R1 – Waterman quickly takes Herman down and starts a ground
and pound attack. Herman works his way up and out. Waterman starts
working a single leg takedown, but eats several elbows to the
side of the head. Herman then drives home a knee to Waterman’s
side, flattens him out and starts dropping bombs from full mount
to get the referee stoppage from referee Chris West.
Dave
Herman def. Ron Waterman by TKO (Strikes) at 2:19, R1
-Rafael
Feijao vs. Wayne Cole
R1 – Feijao immediately takes Cole down from the clinch,
but Cole works back to a standing clinch. Feijao starts landing
knees to Cole’s legs. One knee catches Cole in the groin
and he gets 5 minutes to recoup. A brief flurry from Feijao then
they clinch again. Feijao starts landing brutal knees, dropping
Cole to the mat and then following him down and throwing big
right hand punches until referee Mario Yamasaki steps in to stop
the fight.
Rafael
Feijao def. Wayne Cole by TKO (Strikes) at 2:47, R1
ELITE
XC REVIEW: NOONS WIN MARRED BY DIAZ ANTICS
He may have been the underdog coming into Saturday night’s
main event at EliteXC “Return of the King” in Honolulu,
but K.J. Noons left will the EliteXC lightweight belt still securely
around his waist.
Noons
and Edwards traded a few shots to get things moving in their
bout, but it was Noons that caught Edwards with a right hand
on the chin that sent the Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran
sprawling to the canvas. He immediately followed Edwards down
and was unrelenting with a flurry of punches and forearms that
caused referee Mario Yamasaki to call a halt to the bout.
Following
the bout, Noons and Edwards were nothing but respectful to each
other.
“We
go way back and he’s a great competitor. You know, MMA,
that’s just the way that it happens, you get caught with
a shot,” said a humble Noons.
Edwards
mirrored the respect show to him saying, “He’s the
man. He whooped my ass. He dropped me and I don’t remember
any of that stuff.”
But
in an instant, all of the sportsmanship shown between Edwards
and Noons was tossed into the dumpster when EliteXC officials
allowed Nick Diaz to enter the cage, obviously under the auspices
of hyping up a rematch with Noons, who defeated Diaz to win his
championship.
When
asked his thoughts on a rematch, Noons deferred to the crowd
at Blaisdell Center, who soundly “booed” Diaz.
Diaz
than did his best to get under Noons’ skin by saying, “Don’t
be scared homie,” and then extending his middle fingers
and shoving them in his face. It worked. Noons and his father
lunged after Diaz and his camp – which included brother
and UFC fighter Nathan – before security could step in and
break up the melee.
Diaz
left the ring under a shower of boos and flying cups, as he and
his brother continued flipping the bird to the crowd as they
left the arena floor.
If
EliteXC wanted to hype up Diaz’ bad boy image to play the
foil to Noons’ good guy persona, well… they likely
got everything they could hope for. Don’t be surprised to
see an announcement that the two will rematch soon, possibly
on the announced second episode of CBS-EliteXC Saturday Night
Fights on July 26.
It
took him the better part of all three rounds to do it, but Diaz
was successful in defeating Muhsin Corbbrey in a catch weight
battle at 168 pounds. Diaz initially weighed in at 169 pounds
and looked to use his size advantage over Corbbrey – who
weighed 163 – bullying him around as the fight wore on.
The
two primarily traded strikes throughout the bout with Diaz getting
the better of Corbbrey as the clock ticked down. In round three,
Diaz finally took Corbbrey to the mat and attempted a Kimura
and armbar before finishing the fight raining down punches from
the full mount, causing a referee stoppage.
Despite
interviewer Bill Goldberg’s best attempts to get Diaz to
engage some talk about the main event title bout between Noons
and Edwards, Diaz refused, muttering, “I’m gonna go
back home, get back to training, get after it.”
Little
did we know that Diaz was just staging his entrance back into
the cage to wreak havoc following Noons’ successful title
defense.
Australian
Tony Bonello was raring to go, jawing at Murilo “Ninja”
Rua as they stared each other down prior to the bout, but he’s
probably lucky to open his jaw after the bout. He stormed Ninja
with punches, then immediately jumped guard, and that would be
the beginning of the end for Bonello.
Ninja
quickly passed guard to side control then spent the next minute
and a half punishing Bonello with a succession of elbows to the
body and forearms to the head. He then attained a knee on belly
position and unleashed a barrage of right hands to the face until
Yamasaki stopped the bout.
After
the bout, through an interpreter, Ninja – the first EliteXC
middleweight champion – said that he wants his belt back;
that is his next goal.
David
“Pee Wee” Herman kept his undefeated record intact
with a quick finish of UFC and Pride veteran Ron Waterman. Although
Herman got taken down a couple of times early on, but as Waterman
went for a single-leg takedown, Herman punished him with elbows
to the side of the head before finishing him off with a knee
to the ribs and flurry of hard right hands from the mount to
end the fight.
The
Showtime broadcast opened in exciting fashion as Brazilian Rafael
Feijao was ruthless in pursing Oklahoman Wayne Cole. There were
a couple of brief lulls when they clinched, but it was Feijao’s
devastating Muay Thai knee strikes to the body that earned him
the victory. Midway through the opening round, he dropped Cole
with knees to the body and finished him off by way of TKO, hammering
him with big right hand punches for the referee’s stoppage.
“Everything,
everything I know, I (get from) this guy,” said Feijao after
the fight in regards to his training with UFC middleweight champion
Anderson Silva.
RESULTS:
-Carl
Barton defeated Kepa Madeiros via 1st round TKO
-Rafael Feijao defeated Wayne Cole via 1st round TKO
-Dave Herman defeated Ron Waterman via 1st round TKO
-Murilo Rua defeated Tony Bonello via 1st round TKO
-Nick Diaz defeated Muhsin Corbbrey via 3rd round TKO
-KJ Noons defeated Yves Edwards via 1st round TKO
-Russell
Doane defeated Dwayne Haney via 1st round TKO
-PJ Dean
and Dean
Lista fought to a draw
-Mike Aina defeated Kaleo
Kwan via
decision
-Mark Oshiro defeated Chris Willems via 1st round triangle choke
-Bubba McDaniel defeated Ross Hose via 1st round rear-naked choke
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Hawaii's
Newest PARAGON of Fight Events...
This
is the latest progression in Hawaii's fighting evolution, for
fighters with stand-up/kickboxing, triple threat/got skills,
as well as MMA backgrounds in both amateur and pro-bouts.
This
event will feature an extensive fight-card, with fighters from
Oahu AND outer islands to showcase their talent as well as gain
valuable experience and exposure.
WHAT:PARAGON
WHEN: FRIDAY, JUNE 20
TIME: 7:3O PM
Where; Olounge Nightclub
tickets:
$25 pre-sale/ $30 door
ticket info: 741-0322 / 781-2064
|
DREAM
4 REVIEW: MANHOEF DESTROYS A LEGEND
Dream held its fourth show at the Yokohama Arena, highlighted
by the second round of the Dream Middleweight Grand Prix.
Japanese
legend Kazushi Sakuraba met Dutch terror Melvin Manhoef in the
main event of Dream 4 with the last spot in the semi-finals of
the Dream Middleweight Grand Prix on the line. Both fighters
started tentatively, not wanting to make the first mistake and
give their opponent the advantage. Just as Manhoef pushed Sakuraba
against the ropes, he threw a high kick that partially landed
and swarmed in for the kill, tagging him with punches and knees.
At several instances it seemed that fight should have been stopped,
as Sakuraba was being overwhelmed with strikes and not defending
at all. After a series of hammer fists, the referee finally stepped
in and stopped the fight at 1:50 of the opening round, Manhoef
moving on to the semi-final round of the tournament.
In
the most anticipated quarterfinal of the Dream Middleweight Grand
Prix, ground master Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza took on
eccentric Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Jason “Mayhem”
Miller. From the onset, Jacare established his ground dominance
by taking Miller down and quickly going to work. Moving from
position to position, Jacare had Miller on the defensive, attempting
an array of submissions including chokes and leg locks. Miller
to his credit escaped each submission and reversed position,
but was never able to get any significant offense going.
The
second round was slower as Jacare looked to take the fight to
the ground, but Miller was able to defend well against that takedown.
Keeping it on the feet, Miller started to tag a tiring Jacare,
but never landed that telling blow to sway the fight in his favor.
As the fight was ending, they went to the ground with Jacare
working for a choke until the fight ended. Although he escaped
everything Jacare threw at him, Miller was unable to mount any
significant offense and the judges took notice, awarding Jacare
a unanimous decision.
Bad
luck reared its head again for Zelg Galesic and Taiei Kin. In
their first encounter, Galesic opened a gash on Kin’s eyelid
that forced a stoppage; once again an early stoppage marred this
fight. After clinching along the ropes, the fighters were restarted
with both fighters trading quick blows. Galesic grabbed hold
of Kin and went for a judo throw, but Kin landed on his elbow,
which bent backwards and was surely dislocated, forcing a stoppage
at 1:05 of the opening round.
Gegard
Mousasi advanced to the semi-final round of the Dream Middleweight
Grand Prix, dominating Korean judoka Dong Sik Yoon. Mousasi used
crisp low kicks and knees throughout the opening round to prevent
Yoon from taking him to the ground, leaving Yoon vulnerable on
the feet. Mousasi dropped Yoon with a knee midway through the
round, but the Korean remained poised and continued on. Towards
the end of the round, Mousasi went to the ground and it almost
cost him the fight as Yoon reversed him and nearly locked on
an armbar.
In
the second round, Yoon quickly went to the ground again, but
Mousasi was able to get his back and never let go for the rest
of the round, peppering Yoon with punches until the fight ended.
After dominating the majority of the fight, Mousasi was awarded
the unanimous decision.
The
semi-finals of the middleweight tournament are now comprised
of Manhoef, Jacare, Galesic, and Mousasi.
During
intermission, the semi-final match-ups for the Dream Lightweight
Grand Prix were determined by a random lottery. Having won his
bout earlier in the night, Shinya Aoki drew first and ended up
in the second bracket, followed by Tatsuya Kawajiri who drew
into the first bracket. The crowd waited in suspense as Caol
Uno drew and ended up in the second bracket with Aoki, receiving
a loud applause from the crowd. That left Eddie Alvarez, who
will face Tatsuya Kawajiri in the first semi-final and Shinya
Aoki taking on Caol Uno in the second semi-final.
In
a back and forth featherweight battle, Hideo Tokoro used a mix
of strikes and submission attempts to win a decision over Californian
Darren Uyenoyama. After a feeling out process, Tokoro landed
a crushing knee that dropped Uyenoyama to the mat. Tokoro charged
in, but Uyenoyama stayed composed as Tokoro started to transition
from submission to submission, keeping Uyenoyama on the defensive.
Ending up on top, Uyenoyama started to work over Tokoro with
punches, landing a solid punch that stunned Tokoro. Maintaining
his composure, Tokoro got back to his feet, dropping Uyenoyama
with a knee to the body, finishing out the round on top of his
downed foe.
The
second round was a little slower than the first as the fighters
traded takedowns and positions with neither gaining an advantage
over the other. At the end of the fight, Tokoro had done more
damage in the judges’ eyes, earning the decision.
Stepping
in at the last minute, Ralek Gracie survived some early trouble
to submit Russian knockout specialist Alavutdin Gadzhiev. Gadzhiev
looked good in the early stages, stuffing Gracie’s takedown
attempts and landing punches, but not being able to land that
decisive knockout blow. Gracie clinched and finally took the
fight to the ground, quickly mounting Gadzhiev. After some jostling
on the ground, Gracie spun around and locked on an armbar, forcing
the Russian fighter to tap at 3:02 of the first round.
Strikeforce
heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem made short work of Korean
Ssireum champion Tae Hyun Lee. Overeem landed a punishing left
hook, following it up with a overhand right and a knee for good
measure that left Lee out cold on the mat only 36 seconds into
the bout. After the fight, Overeem let it be known that he had
arrived in Dream and wanted to fight Mirko “Cro Cop”
Filipovic.
Shinya
Aoki advanced to the semi-finals of the Dream Lightweight Grand
Prix, submitting 2000 Olympic silver medalist Katsuhiko Nagata.
After a brief feeling out process, Aoki took the fight to the
ground, but Nagata quickly got back to his feet before being
taken down once again. Wasting no time, Aoki quickly mounted
Nagata, staying patient and picking his shots. Just as the fight
passed the halfway mark, Aoki smoothly locked on a gogoplata
from the top, forcing Nagata to tap at 5:12 of the opening round.
-Melvin
Manhoef def. Kazushi Sakuraba by TKO (Strikes) at 1:50, R1
-Ronaldo Souza def. Jason
Miller
by Unanimous Decision, R2
-Zelg Galesic def. Taei Kin by TKO (Injury) at 1:05, R1
-Gegard Mousasi def. Dong Sik Yoon by Unanimous Decision, R2
-Hideo Tokoro def. Darren Uyenoyama by Unanimous Decision, R2
-Ralek
Gracie
def. Alavutdin Gadzhiev by Submission (Armbar) at 3:02, R1
-Alistair Overeem def. Tae Hyun Lee by KO at 0:36, R1
-Shinya Aoki def. Katsuhiko Nagata by Submission (Gogoplata)
at 5:12, R1
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Ninja
stands out at EliteXC
Knocks out Bonello in impressive fashion
Impressive.
That is what you have to call the knockout that Murilo Ninja
inflicted on Tony Bonello at 3:16min in one of the EliteXC bouts
held last night in Hawaii. With the win, the Brazilian comes
closer to regaining his middleweight belt.
Fellow
Brazilian Rafael Feijao also had a good performance, beating
Wayne Cole with punches 2:47min into round one.
In
the main event of the evening, KJ Noons needed only 48 seconds
to defeat Yves Edwards. The show attracted a good 4,200 people
to the Neil S. Blaisdell Arena, in Honolulu.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
Jacare:
“Miller is a great clown...”
“…And also a great fighter”
It’s
2pm this Saturday, June 14, in Tokyo, Japan, Ronaldo Jacare tips
the scales at 83.9kg for his fight at Dream 4 against the American
and provocational Jason Miller, who has been talking about Jacare
in recent days.
Jaca,
on his part, at the press conference, waited for his opponent
to speak his mind and then spoke his:
“He’s
a great clown, and also a great fighter, I hope we have the best
fight of the night tomorrow.”
The
two-time absolute Jiu-Jitsu champion (2004, 2005) also had some
fun with Kazushi Sakuraba, who showed up wearing goggles and
swimming trunks under his suit.
The
Japanese fighter jokes around unassumingly with his opponent
Melvin Manhoeff, stating that his gear would help him gain nimbleness
against his speedy opponent.
Also
representing the gentle art, Ralek Gracie, who although he was
called up at the last minute to substitute Cacareco (who was
unable to get his Japanese visa), weighed in at 3 kilos over
on his first time at the scales.
With
the event’s understanding, Gracie managed to have a few
more hours and reached the 93kg needed. His opponent, Russian
Gadzhiev Avalutdin, weighed in far under, at 88.6kg.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
Mike
Dolce’s Ultimate Fighter 7 Blog: Week 11
After
last week’s blog, I received hundreds of messages agreeing
with that piece. In contrast, I only received a few dozen messages
disagreeing with my opinion of what “The Ultimate Fighter”
should really be about.
That
ratio is very telling of what the fans of the sport want to see.
They,
we, want to see who these guys really are, where they come from,
and what pushes them to succeed.
We
want to see hard-working athletes, coming from all walks of life,
defying the odds, breaking out and making it – very much
like Rocky.
The
last time I checked, Rocky did a lot better than Porky’s
at the box office.
Obviously,
I am not a television executive; I am just an 18 to 34-year-old
American male who needs to be told what I should want to watch,
regardless of what I actually want to watch.
Instead
of the above, I was treated to another segment of, “Grown
men pee their pants and destroy an expensive home, along with
their reputations… on the next ‘Ultimate Fighter!’”
YES!!!
I
can’t wait to watch this week!!!
Wait
a minute, I actually lived through that night of alcohol-induced
debauchery and am here to tell the tale.
As
with most terrible decisions, that night all started with one
highly intelligent, ultra-dedicated athlete and the bright idea:
“Who wants to do shots?”
Thankfully,
“The Ultimate Fighter 7” bar is stocked full of all
the alcohol any young athlete needs to further his lifelong goal
of television infamy.
The
shots are lined up, and the bottles get drained.
“Hold
on a second, guys,” one of the more astute athletes declares,
“There’s something wrong here!”
Surveying
the situation, clearer heads will surely prevail.
“We
need more BEER, we’re about to run out of BEER!”
“YAY,
BEER,” say about a dozen hard training fighters, purely
devoted to the sanctity of the sport. One jumps on the internal
phone and orders a few cases of highly nutritious yeast and hops,
which I hear is the true secret of champions…?
Hmmm,
I’ll have to Google that.
Anyway,
a few rounds of shots, a few beers and even a couple bottles
of wine to class the place up a bit and we have ourselves a true
ratings juggernaut.
That
is what we are here for, right? Ratings!
“YAY,
RATINGS!”
I
mean, the granddaddy of all reality television shows, “Survivor,”
relies on copious amounts of alcohol to boost ratings, right?
NO???
What
do you mean, NO??? There’s no alcohol on “Survivor?”
It’s one of the highest rated reality television shows in
history?!
How
can that be?
Ok,
no alcohol there, but how about “American Idol?” That’s
the highest rated television show for the last four years running.
Surely, the contestants are wasted through the entire taping
acting like total unprofessional court jesters in order to garner
such high viewer interest?!
NO???
There’s
no alcohol on “American Idol” either? Nobody destroys
the set? Not one cast member urinates on himself?
Not
even a SPRITZ???
How
can this be?!
Are
you telling me, good TV can be accomplished without the cast
getting totally drunk and making complete asses out of themselves?
Careers
and reputations do not need to be sacrificed to the all powerful
media research god, Arthur Nielsen, in order to increase ratings?
Wow!
Now, that would be groundbreaking television.
But
hey, what would an average 18 to 34-year-old American male know
about good TV anyway?
Source: MMA Weekly
|
UFC
VET WINS, ALBERT TALKS CARANO AT RING OF FIRE
BROOMFIELD,
Colo. – On Friday night at the Broomfield Events Center,
Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Mike Nickels wasted no
time returning to his winning ways in the main event of Ring
of Fire 32.
Wanting
to stay away from the experienced boxing hands of Vladimir Vuckovic,
he immediately took the Croation down, attained mount and started
raining down blows. After softening him up, Nickels transitioned
to Vuckovic’s back and submitted him with a rear naked choke.
“I
told everyone in my gym once his back hit the ground, it’s
checkmate,” said Nickels about the finish.
Talking
about his departure from the UFC, he added, “I’m humbled
I’m starting at the bottom now. I feel I have unfinished
business with the UFC, so that’s where I’m headed…
The UFC wanted me to go out and get a couple of wins, so one
down, one to go.”
Ultimate
Fighter alumnus Noah Thomas had to do it twice in one night,
but he did prevail in a grudge match with high school wrestling
teammate Brett Roller.
Although
Thomas took some hard shots from Roller at the beginning of both
the first and second rounds, he managed to weather the storm
in each. He dominated on the ground and even had Roller tapping
out to a triangle choke, which the referee didn’t see and
Roller didn’t acknowledge, late in the first round. In the
second stanza, after weathering Roller’s leather, Thomas
again dominated the ground, dropping some hard elbows from mount
before transitioning to Roller’s back and putting him to
sleep with a rear naked choke.
“We
had our issues,” said Thomas at the post-fight press conference.
But in stark contrast to his backyard brawl with Marlon Sims
during their stint on The Ultimate Fighter, he added, “But
instead of acting like thugs and fighting on the street, we came
in here and handled our differences like professionals.”
After
his bout on Friday night, UFC veteran Luke Caudillo may takeover
Kazuyuki Fujita’s nickname of “Iron Head,” not
that that’s necessarily a good thing. He went nearly three
rounds with Torrance Taylor, but unfortunately for Caudillo it
was nearly three rounds of eating every variety of strike, from
every angle, that you could think of.
Taylor,
fresh off of a unanimous decision victory over another UFC veteran
in Junior Assuncao just two weeks ago, took several punishing
shots from Caudillo as well, but he dished out much more than
he took. He threw not only the usual fare of punches and round
kicks, but spinning back kicks, reverse elbows, axe kicks, and
nearly anything else you could think of before Caudillo submitted
in round three.
“I
have a lot of respect for him and his team,” said Taylor
about Caudillo after the bout. But Taylor earned a lot of respect
himself as well, especially from the local fans, who count Caudillo
as of one their own.
In
the lone female bout on the card, Zingano Jiu-Jitsu fighter Cat
Albert almost made it look easy against Xtreme Couture’s
Karina Taylor once the fight hit the mat. Early on though, as
the two stood and traded blows, it was Taylor that was gaining
the upper hand, but once on the mat, it was all Albert. She deftly
worked her transitions from full mount to back mount, until finally
securing an armbar for the finish.
Albert
has quickly risen up the ranks to be considered one of the top
female mixed martial artists in Colorado. Asked afterwards about
her progression and the wanting to step outside of the state
to a promotion such as EliteXC, she commented, “Anyone you
can put in front of me, I’m excited to (fight). It’s
the ultimate test to myself.”
As
Gina Carano is currently at the center of women’s MMA, when
asked about her, Albert stated, “After watching (Carano)
fight the other night, I don’t think it would be that big
of a problem for me (to fight her).”
Albert
typically fights at about 135 pounds while Carano has had trouble
making it to the contracted 140-pound limit in her most recent
fights and will likely be fighting at 145 pounds in the future.
Not a problem says Albert, “I’d fight her if she was
145 and I was 105.
Following
a false start due to a low-blow, Brandon Thatch then shut down
Mike Crisman with a polished Muay Thai clinic. Once he was able
to latch on with the Thai clinch, Thatch unloaded a flurry of
brutal knees to the body and head that dropped Crisman and earned
Thatch the Ring of Fire Young Guns welterweight strap.
In
a battle between two of Colorado’s top middleweight prospects,
Kenneth Seegrist, known locally as “Sir Kenneth Ivan,”
made quick work of Ian Berg, locking on a guillotine choke at
1:27 of round one. The win earned Seegrist the Ring of Fire Young
Guns middleweight championship and kept him undefeated in seven
bouts.
Before
the main card got underway, there were four preliminary bouts
that heated up the crowd filtering into the arena. In all, three
of the four prelims combined for a total of little more than
two minutes of fast-paced action.
The
only early bout to go any length of time was Nate Marquardt teammate
Cody Donovan’s fight with Weston Duschen of Xtreme Couture.
A popular fighter on the local scene, Donovan worked aggressively
throughout with his submission attempts, finally locking on a
fight-ending armbar early in the third round.
Professional
MMA Bouts:
-Mike
Nickels def. Vladimir Vuckovic by Submission (Rear Naked Choke)
at 2:18, R1
-Noah
Thomas vs. Brett Roller by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:03,
R2
-Torrance
Taylor def. Luke Caudillo by Submission (Verbal) at 3:10, R3
-Cat
Albert def. Karina Taylor by Submission (Armbar) at 2:30, R1
Amateur
MMA Bouts:
-Brandon
Thatch def. Mike Crisman by TKO (Knee Strikes) at 0:38, R1
-Justin
Salas def. Max Smith Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 1:26, R1
-Kenneth
Seegrist def. Ian Berg by Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 1:27,
R1
-Brian
Wood def. Miguel Martinez by Submission (Neck Crank/Front Choke)
at 1:05, R1
-Cody
Donovan def. Weston Duschen by Submission (Armbar) at 1:16, R3
-Brendan
Schaub def. Jay Lester by TKO (Strikes) at 0:30, R1
-Sean
Doherty def. Dominick Blanco by Submission (Armbar) at 0:29,
R1
Source: MMA Weekly
|
|
6/15/08
Happy Father's Day |
Quote
of the Day
"Happiness
lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882-1945, 32nd President of the United
States
|
GrappleFest
Today!
GRAPPLEFEST SUBMISSION SUNDAYS
Date
of Tournament: Fathers Day Sunday June 15th, 2008
Location: Neal S. Blaidsdell Center Hawaii Suite
777 Ward Ave Honolulu Hawaii 96814
Register online at: www.grapplefest.net
Cost:
Kids under 14 Free, Adults $40
Format:
Session
1 (9:00 a.m. - 12:30 a.m. including weigh-ins)
• Divisions: Ages 4-12 years old.
o Weigh-Ins start at 9:00 a.m.
o Wrestling starts at 10:00 a.m.
o Wrestling completes around 12:30 p.m.
4 person round robin brackets for all divisions
4 minute period
Session
2 (11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. including weigh-ins)
• Divisions: Ages 13-Adult
o Weigh-Ins start at 11:00 a.m.
o Wrestling starts at 12:30 p.m.
o Wrestling completes around 4:00 p.m.
4 person round robin brackets for all divisions
6 minute period for
Awards:
Every grappler will receive a medal
Points-Scoring
Abbreviations:
1. Takedown (T2) 2 pts. * anytime a grappler goes from neutral
position to top control
2. Low amplitude throw (T3) 3 pts. * must be an upper body hold
from neutral position
3. High amplitude throw (T5) 5 pts. * must be an upper body hold
and meet the Grand amplitude criteria
4. Side Mount (SM3) 3 pts.
5. Full Mount (FM4) 4 pts.
6. Back Mount (BM5) 5 pts.
7. Escape (E1) 1 pt. * anytime a grappler goes from being on
bottom to neutral position
8. Reversal (R2) 2 pts. * anytime a grappler goes from being
on bottom to top control
9. Submission Appreciation Point (SAP) 1 pt. * SAP’s are
awarded for having more Sub Advantage Marks at the end of regulation
time.
10. Submission Advantage Mark (AS) * Sub Advantage Marks serve
as the first criteria for First Choice in the 1st OT period.
Control
must be established for a count of 3 seconds to score any of
the above points or marks
Divisions:
(01) 5 & Under (Bracketed at Event Block Weight)
(02) 8 & Under Beg. 35-45 lbs.
(03) 8 & Under Beg. 46-55 lbs.
(04) 8 & Under Beg. 56-75 8 & Under Beg. 76+
(05) 8 & Under Beg. 76+ (15lbs. Max Difference Block Weight
(06) 8 & Under Int./Adv. 45-55 lbs.
(07) 8 & Under Int./Adv. 56-65 lbs.
(08) 8 & Under Int./Adv. 66-75 lbs.
(09) 8 & Under Int./Adv. 76+ (15lbs. Max Difference Block
Weight
(10)
9-12 Beg. 50-55 lbs.
(11) 9-12 Beg. 56-65 lbs
(12) 9-12 Beg. 66-75 lbs.
(13) 9-12 Beg. 76-85 lbs
(14) 9-12 Beg. 86-95 lbs.
(15) 9-12 Beg. 96+ (25 lbs. Max Difference Block Weight
(16) 9-12 Int./Adv. 50-55 lbs.
(17) 9-12 Int./Adv. 56-65 lbs
(18) 9-12 Int./Adv. 66-75 lbs.
(19) 9-12 Int./Adv. 76-85 lbs.
(20) 9-12 Int./Adv. 86-95 lbs.'
(21) 9-12 Int./Adv. 96+ (25 lbs. Max Difference Block Weight)
(22)
13-14 Beg. 95-125 lbs.
(23) 13-14 Beg. 126-135 lbs.
(24) 13-14 Beg. 136-149 lbs.
(25) 13-14 Beg. 150+ (25 lbs. Max Difference Block Weight
(26) 13-14 Int./Adv. 95-125 lbs.
(27) 13-14 Int./Adv. 126-135 lbs.
(28) 13-14 Int./Adv. 136-149 lbs.
(29) 13-14 Int./Adv. 150+ (25 lbs. Max Difference Block Weight)
(30)
15-17 Beg. up to 135 lbs. (Bracketed at Event Block Weight
(31) 15-17 Beg. 136+ lbs. (25 lbs. Max Difference Block Weight
(32) 15-17 Int./Adv. Up to 135 lbs. (Bracketed at Event Block
Weight)
(33) 15-17 Int./Adv. 136-165 lbs. (Bracketed at Event Block Weigh)
(34) 15-17 Int./Adv. 166+ lbs.
(35)
Men’s (Novice) 136.5 lbs.
(36) Men’s (Novice) 154 lbs.
(37) Men’s (Novice) 176 lbs.
(38) Men’s (Novice) 202.5 lbs.
(39) Men’s (Novice) 275 lbs.
(41)
Senior Men’s (Advanced) 136.5 lbs. (Cash Prize 1st Place)
(42) Senior Men’s (Advanced) 154 lbs. (Cash Prize 1st Place)
(43) Senior Men’s (Advanced) 176 lbs. (Cash Prize 1st Place)
(44) Senior Men’s (Advanced) 202.5 lbs. (Cash Prize 1st
Place)
(45) Senior Men’s (Advanced) 275 lbs. (Cash Prize 1st Place)
(46)
Senior Women's (Advanced) 105.5 lbs
(47) Senior Women's (Advanced) 121 lbs.
(48) Senior Women's (Advanced) 138.5 lbs.
(49) Senior Women's (Advanced) 158.5 lbs.
Source: Event Promoter
|
Undisputed
UFC Middleweight Champion
Anderson "The Spider" Silva Seminar
Today!
|
Pride
Grand Prix Champion
Mauricio "Shogun" Rua Seminar
Today!
Ninja
& Shogun Rua
Tropic
Lightnining Tae Kwon Do
2nd Floor, Waipahu
Sunday, June 15, 2008
5-7PM
Cost: $60
To
reserve your spot, please call:
Alden (Submit One) 371-1589
Wyman 216-4852
|
2008
U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Judo Day 1 Finalists List
(Las
Vegas, Nev.) – In a day of upsets at the 2008 U.S. Olympic
Team Trials for Judo, athletes from the USA Judo National Training
Site at the Olympic Training Center led the field with four players
advancing to the finals in Olympic qualified weight divisions.
Finals
begin at 5 p.m. at the Thomas & Mack Center.
In
his second Trials appearance, Hawaiian native Taylor Takata (Colorado Springs, Colo. / USA Judo
National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center / 66kg)
was one of three #1 seeds who advanced to the evening finals.
After
defeating Tanner Singh (Plano, Texas / Dallas Judo) in the first
round, Takata met two-time World member Justin Flores (Glenville,
N.Y. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason Morris Judo
Center) in the semifinals.
Both
Flores and Takata have been top-ranked 66kg players, during the
past four years, but had only fought once when Flores defeated
Takata in the 2007 Senior National finals.
This
time, however, Takata controlled the match, throwing Flores for
a yuko (quarter-point) score to start the match. Takata was given
a penalty, but threw Flores with a double leg for another score
which was later waved off by the referees.
Takata
clinched the match in the last 30 seconds when he threw Flores
for a koka (smallest points) score and broke into a smile as
he knew he had eliminated the 2004 Olympic Team alternate from
the tournament.
Takata
will face Jeremy Liggett (Glenville, N.Y. / NYAC / USA Judo National
Training Site at the Jason Morris Judo Center) in the finals.
Nineteen-year-old Liggett has been in the 66kg division for less
than two years after moving up from 60kg after the 2006 Junior
World Championships. After a first round win against Joseph Hashimoto
(San Jose, Calif. / USA Judo National Training Site at San Jose
State University), Liggett and 2008 National Champion Nate Torra
(El Cerrito, Calif. / NYAC / East Bay Judo Institute) fought
in the semifinals.
With
similarly matched styles, Liggett and Torra went back and forth
through both the five-minute regulation period as well as a second
Golden Score session. The match looked like it would be left
to a referee decision when Torra went in for a final attack and
Liggett swept him to win the match.
If
Takata wins the match against Liggett, he will be nominated to
the Olympic Team. If Liggett wins the match, the two will have
a best-of-three fight-off this evening.
The
+100kg division nearly included an upset when #4 Jonathan Leonhardt
(San Jose, Calif. / USA Judo National Training Site at San Jose
State University) was down by two yukos (quarter-point each)
and a koka against top-ranked Anthony Turner (Miami, Fla. / USA
Judo National Training Site at the Jason Morris Judo Center)
when Leonhardt threw Turner for ippon.
An
elated Leonhardt, who had beaten Turner for the first time in
April at the National Championships, pointed to his San Jose
contingent in the stands and flashed the #1 sign to his family
and friends, but the referees convened and determined that the
match had been stopped at the start of the throw.
The
win was reversed and Turner threw Leonhardt for another yuko
score. Although Turner appeared to be in pain, Leonhardt couldn’t
produce another score and lost the match.
Turner
will fight in the final against Daniel McCormick (Wakefield,
Mass. / USA Judo National Team FORCE) who beat two-time World
Team member Kirk Hoffmann (Colorado Springs, Colo. / USA Judo
National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center) by two
penalties in the other semifinal.
If
Turner wins the match against McCormick, he will be nominated
to the Olympic Team. If McCormick wins the match, the two will
have a best-of-three fight-off this evening.
Reigning
World silver medalist Ronda Rousey (Wakefield, Mass. / NYAC /
USA Judo National Team FORCE / 70kg) needed less than 90 seconds
to advance to her second Trials final.
After
throwing Natalie Laursen (Livermore, Calif. / Northern California
Elite Team) off the grip, Rousey pinned Jennifer Tutass (El Cerrito,
Calif. / Cunningham’s Judo) in the first minute of the semifinals.
On
the other side of the bracket, Katie Sell (Oshkosh, Wis. / USA
Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center) upset
former National Champion Katie Mocco (Glenville, N.Y. / NYAC
/ USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason Morris Judo Center)
in the semifinals. Although Mocco went for an armbar early in
the match, Sell attacked on her feet and threw Mocco for ippon.
If
Rousey wins the final match against Sell, she will be nominated
to the Olympic Team. If Sell wins the match, the two will have
a best-of-three fight-off this evening.
Former
World medalist Brian Olson (Boulder, Colo. / NYAC / USA Judo
National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center) continued
his nine-month comeback from retirement when he advanced to the
90kg final against Jacob Larson (Santa Rosa, Calif. / Redwood
Coast Judo Club).
After
Olson defeated 2007 Pan Am Games Champion Rick Hawn (Wakefield,
Mass. / USA Judo National Team FORCE), 2006 Junior World Team
member Larson upset two-time National Champion Garry St. Leger
(Brooklyn, N.Y. / NYAC / Legrosports Starrett) with a throw for
ippon (instant win) in overtime.
As
St. Leger is the #1 seed, he will fight the winner of the Olson
and Larson final in a best-of-three fight-off tonight.
In
the 100kg division, top-ranked Adler Volmar (Coral Springs, Fla.
/ USA Judo National Training Site at North Miami) lost in the
first round to #8 seed Brian Picklo (Mustang, Okla. / USA Stars)
– a former All-American wrestler at Michigan State University.
Picklo
then defeated Senior Nationals bronze medalist Dariusz Mikolajczak
(Brooklyn, N.Y. / NYAC / Legrosports Starrett) to advance to
the final against two-time World Team member Djamaldin Aliev
(Denver, Colo. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic
Training Center). Aliev threw 2004 Olympic alternate Michael
Barnes (San Jose, Calif. / USA Judo National Training Site at
San Jose State University) in the first round and then defeated
Victor Jean-Baptiste (Brooklyn, N.Y. / Mushakan Dojo) by two
penalties to one.
The
winner of the final between Aliev and Picklo will face Volmar
in a best-of-three series to determine who will qualify for the
Olympic Team.
Two
divisions that the United States did not qualify for the Olympic
Games were contested on a contingency basis.
In
the 52kg division, 2008 Senior Nationals silver medalist Tracy
Nagai (Bellevue, Wash. / Budokan Judo) defeated Kim Carpenter
(Burnt Hills, N.Y. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason
Morris Judo Center) in the final by a yuko score.
In
the alternate bracket, 13-year-olds Mindy Chow (Honolulu, Hawaii
/ Hawaii Tenri) threw Samantha Martin (Burleson, Texas / Ruben
Martin Judo Training Center) in the first round. Chow then advanced
to fight Carpenter in the alternate final, throwing Carpenter
off the grip.
Earlier
in the day, Chow’s 15-year-old sister Chrissy Chow (Honolulu,
Hawaii / Hawaii Tenri) was armbarred in the first round by Carpenter.
Eighteen-year-old brother Daniel Chow (Honolulu, Hawaii / Hawaii
Tenri) fought in the 66kg division, but lost to Torra in the
first round.
In
the 63kg division, former 57kg player Christal Ransom (Colorado
Springs, Colo.) fought her USA Judo National Training Site at
the Olympic Training Center teammate Paola Genao-Butler in the
final, throwing her for a yuko score and later pinning her for
the win.
As
Genao-Butler was the #1 seed, the two fought twice more with
Ransom winning the first match by a penalty and a yuko scored
in the last minute. In the next round, Ransom
Although
the United States is not qualified to compete at the Games in
either the 52kg or 63kg divisions, Nagai and Ransom would be
the nominees to the Team should a slot for the United States
become available.
Source: USA Judo
|
Wand
and the lucky bald head
‘I shaved it and remembered the fight style I had in Japan’
Like all human beings, fighters also have curious beliefs and
superstitions. Who doesn’t remember the Biblical story of
Samson, who possessed incredible power due to his long hair and
became weak when he had it cut? Well, to Wanderlei Silva it was
quite the opposite.
In
an interview given Japanese magazine Kampiro, the Brazilian star
admitted to have shaved his head before his last fight, and said
he will probably adopt that procedure for the next ones. Wanderlei
used to do just that when he used to fight for Pride – where,
by the way, he reigned supreme for years.
“I’m
happy I shaved it because I could win. I knew my fans in the
U.S. expected to see fights like the ones I fought in Japan.
I shaved my head and remembered the fight style I had in Japan,
a wild Wanderlei,” said the athlete, who spent his vacation
in Hawaii.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
EliteXC
Wants Ortiz
Brian Knapp
EliteXC will vie for the services of former UFC light heavyweight
champion Tito Ortiz, one of the mixed martial arts world's most
polarizing figures.
The
33-year-old Ortiz (15-6-1) completed his latest contract with
the UFC in May, as he dropped a unanimous decision to the unbeaten
Lyoto Machida at UFC 84. His long-running public war of words
with UFC president Dana White drove a wedge between himself and
the promotion, and by the end of the Machida fight, both sides
seemed content to separate.
"We're
interested," said Jeremy Lappen, head of fight operations
for EliteXC. "We'd love to have Tito Ortiz as part of our
organization. Any organization out there would love to have Tito."
The
most prolific fighter in UFC history, Ortiz fought 21 times for
the Las Vegas-based promotion. Winless in his past three bouts,
he has lost to only four men - Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell,
Frank Shamrock and Machida - in the last 11 years. His feud with
UFC Hall-of-Famer Ken Shamrock, which spanned three matches and
more than a decade, sparked further interest in what went on
inside the Octagon.
Lappen
indicated negotiations have already taken place between EliteXC
and Ortiz. The upstart Affliction promotion has also made its
intentions to pursue the charismatic Californian known, a development
that could drive his price tag higher.
"We're
talking," Lappen said. "We'll see what happens. The
deal has to be good for both sides. He'd be a great addition
to our organization, but there are a lot of people actively pursuing
him."
Source: The Fight Network
|
Belfort
vs. Martin Added to “Banned”
Line-up Announced for PPV and FSN Broadcast
By FCF Staff
Affliction
has released the full line-up for the promotion’s debut
event, “Banned”, which will take place July 19th, at
the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. In the latest bout to
be added to the card, former UFC star Vitor Belfort will take
on fellow Octagon veteran Terry Martin. Belfort (16-8) has won
two straight bouts competing for Britain’s Cage Rage, since
the Brazilian fighter lost by Unanimous Decision to Dan Henderson
at Pride 32 in October, 2006. Belfort stopped Ivan Serati in
the first round with strikes at Cage Rage 21 last April, and
at Cage Rage 23 in September, he worked his way to a Decision
win over James Zikic.
Martin
(16-4) will be looking to back on the winning track after losing
his last two fights. At UFC Fight Night 11 last September, Martin
was knocked out by Chris Leben in the third round, and more recently
at UFC 81 in February, he lost by Unanimous Decision to Marvin
Eastman. The back-to-back losses ended a 4 fight winning streak
for the Chicago fighter, which included victories over Jorge
Rivera and Ivan Salaverry.
“Banned”
will be split into two broadcasts as Fox Sports Net is scheduled
to show one hour of the card, beginning at 5:00PM Pacific, before
the card’s pay-per-view starts at 6:00 PM PST. According
to the Affliction “Banned” site, the FSN broadcast
will feature Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Paul Buentello and Antonio
Rogerio Noguiera vs. Vernon White.
The
card’s PPV, which will start at 6:00PM Pacific, 9:00 Eastern,
will feature; Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Nascimento, Mike Whitehead
vs. Renato Sobral, Pedor Rizzo vs. Josh Barnett, Ben Rothwell
vs. Andrei Arlovski, and the card’s main event, Fedor Emelianenko
vs. Tim Sylvia.
Other
bouts scheduled for the card that might not be broadcast include;
Mark Hominick vs. Savant Young, JJ Ambrose vs. Mike Pyle, Justin
Levens vs. Ray Lizama, and the aforementioned bout between Belfort
and Martin.
Source: Full Contact Fighter
|
Cacareco
out of Dream due Visa problems
By Guilherme Cruz
While
inside the ring Alexandre “Cacareco” is having great
performances with nothing to complain about, outside the Brazilian
is not having a run of good luck. After five wins with five submits
at the first round, been highly rated to dispute the International
Fight League (IFL) belt, Cacareco had to see the staff cancel
the next week event due financial problems. If that isn’t
enough for him, Zé Mario Sperry athlete had problems with
his Visa and could not board to Japan to the fight against the
Russian Alavutdin Gadzhiyev at Dream.
Source: Tatame
|
French
Fighter Baron Signs with UFC
Stash Capar
Frenchman
David Baron has become the latest European to sign with the UFC,
according to a source within the Team Haute Tension fighter's
camp. A veteran of several promotions, including Pride Fighting
Championships, the 35-year-old will carry a five-fight winning
streak into his next fight.
Baron
(15-2) last fought in May, when he submitted Japanese standout
Hayato "Mach" Sakurai at a Shooto event with a first-round
guillotine choke. Sakurai had been submitted only once before,
by Crosley Gracie in 2004, and had not been finished in nearly
two years.
Easily
one of Europe's most accomplished mixed martial artists, Baron
owns victories against former Cage Rage lightweight champion
Abdul Mohammed and recent UFC signee Dan Hardy. His only to defeats
came to former Pride lightweight champion Takanori Gomi and Swedish
UFC veteran Per Eklund. Baron has been finished only once --
by Gomi -- in 17 career bouts.
Source: The Fight Network
|
Werdum:
“My objective is the belt”
By Guilherme Cruz
Brandon
Vera charges have a reply from the Brazilian Fabricio Werdum.
After announce disappointment with the bout judge and with the
Braziliam fighter, at the UFC 85 that was hold last Saturday
(7), Vera insinuated that Werdum was afraid to face him. Always
thoughtful with the press, Werdum send a email answering the
North American words. “I am very happy with my win. I came
to to show my word and my train I made an excellent fight wining
in the first round. I can’t go against the judge opinion,
they are competent and, if the judge didn’t stop, he would
stop two punches after that. My objective is the belt, I don’t
have time to a return bout against Vera. He was in my way and
I take him out. I didn’t discard the possibility of face
him and knock him out again. I am very well prepared, but before
that he has to comeback to the end of the line”, said Fabrício
that now is focus in a possible heavyweight UFC title bout.
Source: Tatame
|
GRACIE
TO FIGHT AT DREAM 4
Brian Knapp
Nearly a year after he made his successful professional MMA debut,
Ralek Gracie will lock horns with Alavutdin Gadzhiyev at Dream
4 on Sunday at the Yokohama Arena in Kanagawa, Japan. The promotion
announced the matchup, expected to be contested at heavyweight,
on Thursday.
The
22-year-old Gracie (1-0) submitted Japanese wrestler Katsuyori
Shibata with a first-round armbar at a K-1 Hero's show in July.
He needed just 3:05 to discard Shibata. A Brazilian jiu-jitsu
black belt and the nephew of Royce and Rickson Gracie, Gracie
was originally scheduled to face Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic
in a special rules grappling match at Dream 4.
A
veteran of the Pancrase promotion, Gadzhiyev (7-1) has rattled
off seven consecutive victories since he dropped a decision to
Sergey Burdalenko in his professional debut back in 2004. The
25-year-old Sambo practitioner has secured five of his seven
victories by knockout or technical knockout. Gadzhiyev, a natural
middleweight, was originally booked for a bout with the Brazilian
Top Team's Alexandre "Cacareco" Ferreira, who withdrew
from the event after he encountered difficulty obtaining a visa.
Dream
4 / Sunday, June 15 / Yokohama Arena / Kanagawa, Japan
Dream
Middleweight Grand Prix
Jason
"Mayhem" Miller vs. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza
Melvin
Manhoef vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
Gegard
Mousasi vs. Dong Sik Yoon
Zelg
Galesic vs. Taiei Kin
Dream
Lightweight Grand Prix
Shinya
Aoki vs. Katsuhiko Nagata
Non-Tournament
Bouts
Ralek
Gracie vs. Alavutdin Gadzhiyev
Alistair
Overeem vs. Tae Hyun Lee
Alavutdin
Gadzhiyev vs. Alexandre Ferreira
Hideo
Tokoro vs. Darren Uyenoyama
Source: The Fight Network
|
Quote
of the Day
"He
who fears being conquered is sure of defeat."
Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821, French General and Politician
|
Rest
In Peace Gilmath Brede
On Wednesday, June 11, 2008 one of our Jiu Jitsu Brother's Gilmath
Brede passed away at Straub Hospital. He suffered a heart attack
at his home on Monday morning. Gilmath trained under Bruno Ewald
and Jared Espina of Longman Jiu Jitsu on Kauai and also was a
coach for KPAL Jiu Jitsu Lihue. A 10-year veteran of KCCC, he
was 33 years old and leaves behind a wife and four beautiful
girls. Warden Wagatsuma stated that Brede was one of our most
reliable and conscientious Corrections Officers and will be greatly
missed. Our deepest condolences to his family. Funeral services
yet to be set.
Source: Stacy Iwasaki
|
EliteXC
"Return of the King'' Today!
Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, Hawaii
June 14, 2008
Doors open
at 2:30PM
3:00PM
Event Starts
3
Rounds - 3 Minutes - 185 pounds
Kepa Madeiros (debut) vs. Carl Barton (1-0)
3
Rounds - 3 Minutes - 135 pounds
Russell Doane (Waipahu, HI) vs. Dwayne Haney (1-0)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 160 pounds
PJ Dean
(Waianae, HI)
vs. Dean Lista (Kalihi, HI)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 265 pounds
Lolohea Mahe (1-0) of Kula, Maui, vs. Chris Bernard (1-1) of
Waianae at
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 160 pounds
Kaleo Kwan
(Waimanalo, HI)
vs. Mike Aina (Hilo, HI)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 140 pounds
Mark Oshiro (Pearl City, HI) vs. Chris "Red Bull'' Willems
(Hilo, HI)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 185 pounds
Kala Kolohe (Waianae, HI) vs. Bubba McDaniel (Dallas, TX)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - Heavyweight
Dave "Pee Wee" Herman (Indiana) vs. Ron Waterman (Greeley,
CO)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 205 pounds
Rafael Feijao (Brazil) vs. Wayne Cole (Oklahoma City, OK) at
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 185 pounds
Murilo "Ninja" Rua (Brazil) vs. Tony Bonello (Australian)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 160 pounds
Nick Diaz (Stockton, CA) vs. Muhsin Corbbrey (Hilton Head, S.C.)
EliteXC
Lightweight Championship
5 Rounds - 5 Minutes - 160 pounds
KJ Noons (San Diego, CA) vs. Yves Edwards (Coconut Creek, FL)
|
K.J.
NOONS PLANS
TO KEEP BELT AT ELITE XC
by Mitch Gobetz
Karl
James Noons
was a relative unknown in the mixed martial arts world a few
years ago, but what a difference a couple of fights make. The
boxer-turned mixed martial artist made his name known at EliteXC’s
debut show, Destiny, back in February of last year. His opponent
at the time, the outspoken Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett,
had gotten the best of Noons in that bout with a knockout in
the first round.
Noons
has rebounded well, knocking out Edson Berto with a knee and
then taking out the highly touted Cesar Gracie disciple, Nick
Diaz for the vacant EliteXC lightweight championship.
Since
the fight with Diaz ended controversially on a cut, Diaz has
been very vocal about getting a rematch with Noons. Prior to
the end of the fight, Noons was damaging Diaz with some prolific
combinations and utilizing a strong takedown defense. All the
talk of the Diaz fight doesn’t get under his skin too badly
though. “Sometimes it gets on my nerves,” said Noons.
“Sometimes it doesn't. Most times I just say, 'watch the
fight'. It is what it is.”
The
lightweight division has consistently put on exciting fights
throughout the years. The dynamics and intensity of the fighters
is second to none, and most hardcore fans would agree that the
upcoming lightweight championship bout between K.J. Noons and
Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Yves Edwards should have
been the headliner on CBS-EliteXC Saturday Night Fights a few
weeks ago. Noons believes that would have been a tremendous opportunity.
“That would have been awesome. But it is what it is.”
The
upcoming bout between Noons and Edwards may not be on CBS, but
it will be on Showtime for the fans to enjoy. The two fighters
aren’t known for having boring fights, and according to
Noons, this one won’t disappoint either. “Every fight
that I've seen Yves in, it's been exciting. Every fight that
I'm in is exciting. I think it's going to be a great match-up.
It's going to be an exciting fight.”
Edwards
has a wealth of experience coming into this fight, and is widely
seen as the favorite to take Noons’ title away from him.
Noons, however, just uses his underdog status as motivation to
come in and surprise everyone. “I'm just super motivated
to come out and win this one,” he said. “This guy has
won so many fights. I'm coming in as the underdog. It just motivates
me to train harder.”
In
fact, he feels that all of the pressure is on the challenger
due to him being expected to beat the champ. “Truthfully,
being in my hometown in front of my family and friends, I don't
feel pressure at all. It's just an amazing opportunity to fight
in Hawaii. If anything, he's the one that's supposed to win.
No pressure on me.”
Hawaii
will host this event and Noons is delighted to come back and
fight where he started his career. “The fans are amazing
in Hawaii,” he explained. “They're so die-hard. It's
so much fun fighting in front of them. I started in ICON. I was
the first fight out. Now I’m bringing the title there. It's
crazy. Fighting is really part of the culture growing up. That's
why they love it so much.”
Noons
came into his last fight, against Diaz, with strong conditioning;
and according to the champ he’s in even better shape than
he was before. “I'm in amazing shape. I didn't think there
was any way to train harder. I'm better as a fighter all around.
My record is 5-1 in MMA and being so young in the game, I'm still
a student. I just want to be well-rounded. I trained super hard
for this fight. I just want to get in there and mix it up. If
you like to root for the underdog, root for K.J. Noons.”
He
has done his best to evolve in his young career from a boxer
to a complete mixed martial artist. In fact, he’s been training
so diligently in all aspects of the game that he didn’t
formulate a game plan for Edwards. “I don't even have a
game plan,” commented Noons. “I just train every aspect.
Yves is such a great fighter. He's so good all around. Every
aspect. Growing up, I looked up to him as a fighter. Now we're
fighting each other.”
While
this fight with Edwards is at the top of his priority list, Noons
would love to continue his boxing career following this fight.
Sporting a record of 8-1 in the sweet science, Noons believes
that he is currently a more talented boxer than mixed martial
artist. “Most definitely. I'm not looking past Yves Edwards
this Saturday. After that, I want to move forward in my boxing
career. I'm a much better boxer than I am in MMA.”
One
thing is for sure this weekend, and that is that K.J. Noons wants
to walk away with the belt. “I'm looking forward to my hand
being raised and the belt's coming home with me.”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
ELITEXC’S
“RETURN OF THE KING’’
FINAL PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES & THOUGHTS
THURSDAY, June 12, 2008,
King Street Cafe, Honolulu
One
night after it replays the history-making, first-ever primetime
mixed martial arts event on network television, SHOWTIME will
offer an outstanding card tomorrow, June 14 (10 p.m., ET/PT,
delayed on the west coast) that will feature an EliteXC lightweight
championship fight between defending champ and former Big Island resident,
KJ Noons (5-1)
of San Diego, Calif., and rejuvenated, world-class Yves Edwards
(34-13-1) of Coconut Creek, Fla.
Preceding
a main event matchup of excellent 160-pound strikers will be
a terrific live televised card that will include world-class
Cesar Gracie jiu-jitsu black belt Nick Diaz (16-7) of Stockton,
Calif., and dangerous, up-and-coming ShoXC: Elite Challenger
Series alum Muhsin Corbbrey (13-2) of Hilton Head, S.C., in the
co-feature.
In
other SHOWTIME televised fights: former EliteXC 185-pound champ
Murilo “Ninja” Rua (15-8-1) of Brazil will meet Australian-born,
Las Vegas-based Tony Bonello (16-0-1, 1 NC) in a compelling matchup
at 185; Brazil’s highly regarded Rafael Feijao (5-1) meets
Wayne Cole (11-6) of Norman, Okla., at 205 pounds and heavyweight
prospect Dave “Pee Wee” Herman (10-0) of Bloomington,
Ind., takes on Ron Waterman (15-5-2) of Greeley, Colo.
The
event, billed as “Return of the King’’ will emanate
from the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, and is presented by Los
Angeles-based ProElite, Inc.’s live fight division, EliteXC,
led by Gary Shaw.
Today,
Friday, June 13, at 11 p.m. ET/PT, SHOWTIME will re-broadcast
the inaugural “CBS ELITEXC SATURDAY NIGHT FIGHTS’’
that were shown on May 31 on the CBS Television Network It, too,
was presented by EliteXC.
Tickets
for June 14 start at $25 and are available at all Ticketmaster
locations, online at www.ticketmaster.com, at the Blaisdell Arena
and at all Times supermarkets. Doors open at 2:30. The first
live fight is at 3 p.m. The SHOWTIME portion of the card begins
at 4 p.m. Hawaiian time.
With
the exception of Noons-Edwards, which won’t be lacking for
punch or excitement and is scheduled for five, 5 minutes rounds,
the fights are slated for three, 5-minute rounds.
In
the top undercard fight streamed live and for free at ProElite.com,
Kala Kolohe (6-1) of Waianae, Hawaii, will face Bubba McDaniel
(11-4) of Wichita Falls, Tex., at 185 pounds.
The
other undercard fights will feature fighters from Hawaii: Mark
Oshiro (10-1) of Honolulu vs. Chris “Red Bull’’
Willems (2-1-1) of Hilo at 140 pounds; Kaleo Kwan (8-8) of Waimanalo
vs. Mike Aina (9-6-1) of Hilo at 160; Lolohea Mahe (4-0) of Kahuluia,
Maui, vs. Chris Barnard (1-3) of Waianae at 265 pounds and PJ
Dean (1-3) of Waianae vs. Dean Lista (3-1) of Honolulu. All the
fights are set for three, 5-minute rounds.
Non-televised
bouts (three, 3-minute rounds): Russell Doane (1-1) of Waipahu
vs. Dwayne Haney (1-0) and Kepa Madeiros (debut) vs. Carl Barton
(1-0) at 185. The latter three fighters are from Honolulu.
DOUG
DELUCA, Executive Chairman, ProElite, Inc.
“I
really want to thank the fighters, the athletes, who are part
of the ProElite family. We have always stood behind our fighters;
we did for the CBS show and we stand behind them for this fight
card. We have some of the best fighters in the world and we're
here to stay.
“On
Saturday, you are in for a great night of fights.”
KJ
NOONS
“In
terms of my career, I think other people are more surprised than
I am. But what’s happened to me has happened so fast, even
I have to pinch myself. I always try and get into a zone, a groove,
before a fight, but since being back in Hawaii, seeing myself
on the fight poster, defending the EliteXC title in the main
event, with a lot of family and friends in attendance and the
rest watching on SHOWTIME is, well, really exciting.
“I’m
in a great spot and looking forward to Saturday. It will be a
great event. I'm back where I grew up. My father fought here
in the 1970s. My first MMA fight was at the Blaisdell and now
I'm back. All of that makes this feel really good, especially
to be in my hometown.
“I
have a never-give-up mentality. That is how I've always been.
People could have given up on me after my first loss, but I didn't
and that is what matters.
“Yves
is an amazing opponent and a guy that I used to look up to. That
is very special for me.
“Someone
asked me why people should watch the show on Saturday. My answer
really is that what you will see on Saturday is MMA in its purest
form. Saturday will bring integrity to this sport; the fighters
will. After it, people will really see it as a major sport.’’
YVES
EDWARDS
“You
can never really get comfortable against KJ. You need to be in
complete control before you can relax. Otherwise, he will turn
things around in a hurry.
“This
is going to be a very exciting fight and great exposure for both
of us. For sure, nobody is going to quit. You have two guys with
a lot of heart that want it – and I have to take it.
“The
fact we are old friends, he is the champion -- all of that goes
out the window once the fight starts.
“It’s
easier for me to fight somebody I respect, and I certainly respect
KJ.
“Expect
to see the best Yves Edwards ever on Saturday. I do not wish
KJ any bad will. I just want to hurt him enough so he won’t
want to fight anymore on that night.
“So
I'm sorry that I have to take your gold (looking at KJ jokingly).
But, really, I know I am not the local (fighter). Please support
your guy; just don't boo me too much. That stuff really hurts.’’
NICK
DIAZ
“I’m
glad to have an opponent and to be here fighting. It is great
to be here on the island fighting again. It is such a great environment.
I really want to thank everybody at EliteXC – Rich Chou,
JT Steele, JD Penn, Jeremy Lappen, Gary Shaw – everybody.
“I
feel stronger and bigger. I feel bigger than anybody.’’
MUHSIN
CORRBREY
“Everybody
knows this is the biggest fight of my career, but I have to treat
it as just another day at the office. He (Nick Diaz) is a big
name, but what it comes down to is I just have to get the job
done. That is the big thing for me, to go in and do my job. The
pressure for me is in the gym, the training. I can't wait to
get in there and fight. I'm looking forward to Saturday.’’
MURILO
“NINJA” RUA
“I
want to fight for EliteXC title again. I promise a good show
for the all the fans. I have worked very hard. I promise to win
by knockout.’’
TONY
BONELLO
“I
thank Ninja for taking this fight. These are the kinds of fights
I want. I look forward to fighting someone of Ninja's experience.’’
DAVE
“PEE WEE’’ HERMAN
“I
train at my house. People tell me I am making a mistake, but
I am still unbeaten so I am not going to mess with a good thing.
The only thing I know about my opponent is he’s an old guy.
“I
am looking forward to this fight and fighting for EliteXC. I
am totally focused.’’
RON
WATERMAN
“Age
is not a factor. I still have things I want to accomplish in
this sport. I feel as good now at 42 as I did at 22. I’ve
really stepped up my cardio and my weight is down 25 pounds.
Having eight weeks to train has been great.
“I
am not sure about his ground game so I feel confident I can put
him down and keep him down; maybe, submit him early,
“I
want to win, but I also want to win impressively.’’
RAFAEL
FEIJAO
“Thank
you to Wayne for accepting this fight against me. I love Hawaii.
It is a beautiful place with beautiful people. I want to stay
here a long time.’’
WAYNE
COLE
“EliteXC
changed my life a lot. For my first fight for them on SHOWTIME,
I trained in the garage at my house. Now, I am opening my own
gym and fighting on SHOWTIME again.
“The
plan all along was to eventually go to 205 pounds and I feel
great at the weight. I’ve seen a few of his fights so I
know Feijao is tough.
“He
is an explosive, in-your-face type of guy who likes to fight
in the middle of the cage – same as me. You can bet there
are going to be a lot of fireworks.
“This
is going to be a really good fight. If there will be a fight
of the night, it will be ours.’’
KALA
KOLOHE
“I
watched a few clips of him; he is a tough guy. We are going to
do what we can to give you a great show.’’
BUBBA
MCDANIEL
“I'm
ready to get out there and get in it. I know he (Kala Kolohe)
has a devastating right hand and I will be doing my best to stay
away from that.’’
Source: Johnny Bey
|
Undisputed
UFC Middleweight Champion
Anderson "The Spider" Silva Seminar
Tomorrow!
|
Pride
Grand Prix Champion
Mauricio "Shogun" Rua Seminar
Tomorrow!
Ninja
& Shogun Rua
Tropic
Lightnining Tae Kwon Do
2nd Floor, Waipahu
Sunday, June 15, 2008
5-7PM
Cost: $60
To
reserve your spot, please call:
Alden (Submit One) 371-1589
Wyman 216-4852
|
GrappleFest
This Sunday!
GRAPPLEFEST SUBMISSION SUNDAYS
Date
of Tournament: Fathers Day Sunday June 15th, 2008
Location: Neal S. Blaidsdell Center Hawaii Suite
777 Ward Ave Honolulu Hawaii 96814
Register online at: www.grapplefest.net
Cost:
Kids under 14 Free, Adults $40
Format:
Session
1 (9:00 a.m. - 12:30 a.m. including weigh-ins)
• Divisions: Ages 4-12 years old.
o Weigh-Ins start at 9:00 a.m.
o Wrestling starts at 10:00 a.m.
o Wrestling completes around 12:30 p.m.
4 person round robin brackets for all divisions
4 minute period
Session
2 (11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. including weigh-ins)
• Divisions: Ages 13-Adult
o Weigh-Ins start at 11:00 a.m.
o Wrestling starts at 12:30 p.m.
o Wrestling completes around 4:00 p.m.
4 person round robin brackets for all divisions
6 minute period for
Awards:
Every grappler will receive a medal
Points-Scoring
Abbreviations:
1. Takedown (T2) 2 pts. * anytime a grappler goes from neutral
position to top control
2. Low amplitude throw (T3) 3 pts. * must be an upper body hold
from neutral position
3. High amplitude throw (T5) 5 pts. * must be an upper body hold
and meet the Grand amplitude criteria
4. Side Mount (SM3) 3 pts.
5. Full Mount (FM4) 4 pts.
6. Back Mount (BM5) 5 pts.
7. Escape (E1) 1 pt. * anytime a grappler goes from being on
bottom to neutral position
8. Reversal (R2) 2 pts. * anytime a grappler goes from being
on bottom to top control
9. Submission Appreciation Point (SAP) 1 pt. * SAP’s are
awarded for having more Sub Advantage Marks at the end of regulation
time.
10. Submission Advantage Mark (AS) * Sub Advantage Marks serve
as the first criteria for First Choice in the 1st OT period.
Control
must be established for a count of 3 seconds to score any of
the above points or marks
Divisions:
(01) 5 & Under (Bracketed at Event Block Weight)
(02) 8 & Under Beg. 35-45 lbs.
(03) 8 & Under Beg. 46-55 lbs.
(04) 8 & Under Beg. 56-75 8 & Under Beg. 76+
(05) 8 & Under Beg. 76+ (15lbs. Max Difference Block Weight
(06) 8 & Under Int./Adv. 45-55 lbs.
(07) 8 & Under Int./Adv. 56-65 lbs.
(08) 8 & Under Int./Adv. 66-75 lbs.
(09) 8 & Under Int./Adv. 76+ (15lbs. Max Difference Block
Weight
(10)
9-12 Beg. 50-55 lbs.
(11) 9-12 Beg. 56-65 lbs
(12) 9-12 Beg. 66-75 lbs.
(13) 9-12 Beg. 76-85 lbs
(14) 9-12 Beg. 86-95 lbs.
(15) 9-12 Beg. 96+ (25 lbs. Max Difference Block Weight
(16) 9-12 Int./Adv. 50-55 lbs.
(17) 9-12 Int./Adv. 56-65 lbs
(18) 9-12 Int./Adv. 66-75 lbs.
(19) 9-12 Int./Adv. 76-85 lbs.
(20) 9-12 Int./Adv. 86-95 lbs.'
(21) 9-12 Int./Adv. 96+ (25 lbs. Max Difference Block Weight)
(22)
13-14 Beg. 95-125 lbs.
(23) 13-14 Beg. 126-135 lbs.
(24) 13-14 Beg. 136-149 lbs.
(25) 13-14 Beg. 150+ (25 lbs. Max Difference Block Weight
(26) 13-14 Int./Adv. 95-125 lbs.
(27) 13-14 Int./Adv. 126-135 lbs.
(28) 13-14 Int./Adv. 136-149 lbs.
(29) 13-14 Int./Adv. 150+ (25 lbs. Max Difference Block Weight)
(30)
15-17 Beg. up to 135 lbs. (Bracketed at Event Block Weight
(31) 15-17 Beg. 136+ lbs. (25 lbs. Max Difference Block Weight
(32) 15-17 Int./Adv. Up to 135 lbs. (Bracketed at Event Block
Weight)
(33) 15-17 Int./Adv. 136-165 lbs. (Bracketed at Event Block Weigh)
(34) 15-17 Int./Adv. 166+ lbs.
(35)
Men’s (Novice) 136.5 lbs.
(36) Men’s (Novice) 154 lbs.
(37) Men’s (Novice) 176 lbs.
(38) Men’s (Novice) 202.5 lbs.
(39) Men’s (Novice) 275 lbs.
(41)
Senior Men’s (Advanced) 136.5 lbs. (Cash Prize 1st Place)
(42) Senior Men’s (Advanced) 154 lbs. (Cash Prize 1st Place)
(43) Senior Men’s (Advanced) 176 lbs. (Cash Prize 1st Place)
(44) Senior Men’s (Advanced) 202.5 lbs. (Cash Prize 1st
Place)
(45) Senior Men’s (Advanced) 275 lbs. (Cash Prize 1st Place)
(46)
Senior Women's (Advanced) 105.5 lbs
(47) Senior Women's (Advanced) 121 lbs.
(48) Senior Women's (Advanced) 138.5 lbs.
(49) Senior Women's (Advanced) 158.5 lbs.
Source: Event Promoter
|
PEDERNEIRAS:
MARQUARDT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DQ'D
by Al Yu
Andre Pederneiras is the head of Nova Uniao, the team responsible
for producing athletes such as Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro,
Thales Leites and Jose Aldo, among others. Two of those fighters,
Leites and Aldo, saw action recently fighting for the Ultimate
Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting, respectively.
Although
Pederneiras was pleased with both of his fighters' recent performances,
he had some pretty strong opinions on Leites’ bout with
Nathan Marquardt at UFC 85 in London, believing that the infractions
on Marquardt’s behalf is a recurring issue with the Top
10 ranked middleweight.
MMAWeekly:
You’ve traveled a lot recently, going from the WEC to the
UFC, with your fighters winning in both events. Which of these
performances pleased you the most?
Andre
Pederneiras: I think both of them pleased me a lot. One, for
Junior’s (Jose Aldo’s) knockout, but the other for
Thales’ heroism. Even after having suffered a number of
illegal blows, he carried on fighting and won in the end.
MMAWeekly:
Is Will Ribeiro one of your fighters? How did Will's arrival
at Nova Uniao come about?
AP:
Will is a fighter from Boxe Thai, but he trains here with my
guys since there isn’t that many guys at his weight class
there. I have this exchange with Boxe Thai because I trained
there a long time with Luis Alvez, who is a long-time friend
of mine and Muay Thai instructor.
MMAWeekly:
You mentioned the illegal blows that Thales received in his fight
against Nate Marquardt at UFC 85. Naturally, you are probably
unhappy about that. What is your position on the situation? How
do you think the referee should have acted under those circumstances?
AP:
I think the referee did a good job deducting points from Nathan;
he just didn't react to the last infraction, the piledriver.
I think it was because there were only a few seconds left in
the fight. I feel that Nathan should have been disqualified;
this is not the first time he has committed such an infraction.
I remember back when he fought Cachorrao (Ricardo Almeida) for
the Pancrase title; Cachorrao choked out Marquardt and he punched
him several times after the stoppage. Renzo (Gracie) jumped through
the rope and kicked him two or three times for the cowardly move.
MMAWeekly:
Do you think the UFC should take some kind of preventive measures
to make sure this does not happen in the future?
AP:
I think the best punishment is to hit them where it hurts, in
the pockets. That’s the only way an athlete will learn.
MMAWeekly:
You have been promoting Shooto South America. How is this project
coming?
AP:
It is growing slowly but surely in a solid way and to me that’s
what matters. I want to take years to build an event, but in
return I want it to last for the rest of my life in a solid way.
MMAWeekly:
What do you intend for the future of Shooto South America?
AP:
I want to have champions in every category and put on events
throughout South America.
MMAWeekly:
Who will be the next Nova Uniao fighter to stand out internationally?
AP:
It would be unfair to point out one name. I think the team as
a whole has been growing a lot. Ninety percent of my team comes
from a jiu-jitsu background and the majority of the fighters
are home grown. That motivates me a lot to see a kid who was
a jiu-jitsu champion become an MMA champion. That motivates me
a lot as a professional; this proves my school is based on good
fundamentals and really good techniques for any fighting situation,
whether it is jiu-jitsu or MMA.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
International
Fight League Cancels August 15th Show; Bankruptcy Looming
By Steven Marrocco
The International Fight League has announced the cancellation
of an event scheduled for August 15th at the Izod Center in East
Rutherford, New Jersey. In a statement released today, the camp-based
organization said that it was exploring options for its future,
but said that if it couldn’t improve its financial position,
the company may seek “protection from its creditors through
a court proceeding,” or bankruptcy.
Better times: Setting up for the inaugural IFL event back in
April 2006
Immediately
following the announcement, IFL CEO Jay Larkin held a teleconference
to explain the news. Speaking with around 30 journalists -- a
number Larkin euphemistically called “fascinating”
-- the former Showtime boxing executive offered rare candor into
the state of the company, which went from “in trouble”
to nearing extinction since he took the wheel six months ago.
“We
haven’t been able to -- with all our changes -- turn that
around into a viable product that people want to see,” he
said. “The company is running much better than it ever has
before, less of a ‘bleed’ than it’s ever had before,
the fights are better than they’ve ever been. But the reality
of it is that we’re just not drawing the fans that we need
to keep functioning.”
The
bleed Larkin was referring to was the 33 million dollars in deficits
accrued from the company’s operations in 2006 and 2007.
Revenues for the first half of 2008 were nearly 75% lower than
the first half of 2007, and production and staffing costs were
burning the company’s cash reserves. Despite the red ink,
Larkin stressed that the company was not in debt, and decided
to cancel the show in order to prevent that from happening.
Prior
to the company’s last show on May 16th, Larkin confirmed
that the IFL was looking for new investors or to possibly sell
the company. After the show sold poorly, several sponsors dropped
the IFL due to their falling stock price. Larkin claimed that
outsiders were telling them that the company was going out of
business.
“In
many, that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, people running
away and then you go out of business,” he said. “A
lot of things didn’t fall in the right direction.”
Since
losing their television deal with MyNetwork TV, the IFL had been
unable to secure a new television deal for the company that would
bring it significant revenue. In 2008, the IFL partnered with
HDNet Fights to air the IFL’s shows, but the channel only
covered television production costs. According to Larkin, an
atmosphere of skepticism persists amongst network executives
towards the sport, in spite of the successes of the Ultimate
Fighting Championship, and more recently, Elite XC’s “Saturday
Night Fights” on CBS.
“After
all the noise and all the heat and all the positive talk, there’s
still a tremendous reluctance in mainstream broadcasters to embrace
the sport,” he said.
For
now, Larkin says the IFL will continue to pursue investors and
partnerships that could keep the company afloat.
“We’re
going to stick around as long as we possibly can,” he said.
“That’s the major reason for canceling the August show,
to give us the resources to stick around here a few more months
and play it through.
“We
have turned over a forest of rocks looking to see where the interest
is and who would be excited about being involved in MMA,”
he said. “Everybody gets excited, but they’re all waiting,
they’re all waiting to see is there a business here, is
there a business outside the UFC.”
Larkin
said the IFL would also pursue opportunities for its fighters
in other promotions, and some fighters would remain under their
current contracts. Only under extreme financial duress -- which
appears imminent in the near future -- would the IFL sell its
contracts to other promotions.
“We’re
trying to minimize the heads that have to roll,” he said.
“Everybody’s been in this together for a while, but
if we don’t take some radical steps, there won’t be
a company.”
Source: Full Contact Fighter
|
Three
Titles at Stake at WEC 35
Brian Knapp
World
Extreme Cagefighting welterweight champion Carlos Condit, lightweight
titleholder Jamie Varner and light heavyweight kingpin Brian
Stann will defend their respective belts at WEC 35 on Sunday,
Aug. 3 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
One
of the promotion's cornerstones, Condit (22-4, 4-0 WEC) will
put his 170-pound title on the line against former middleweight
Hiromitsu Miura.
Condit
has been nothing short of sensational since he debuted with the
WEC in January 2007. He has won all four of his matches there
by submission - three of them in the first round - against opponents
with a cumulative record of 104-29-3. Condit will carry a seven-fight
winning streak into the bout. The 23-year-old Albuquerque, N.M.,
native last competed at WEC 32 in February, when he coaxed a
tapout from Carlo Prater with a first-round guillotine choke.
Condit owns key victories against former Icon Sport middleweight
champion Frank Trigg and UFC veterans Brock Larson, John Alessio
and Brandon Melendez. Twenty one of his 22 career wins have come
by knockout, technical knockout or submission.
Miura
(9-4, 2-1 WEC), meanwhile, has posted back-to-back wins since
his decision loss to Jason "Mayhem" Miller in May 2007.
A veteran of the K-1, Pancrase and Deep promotions, the 26-year-old
prefers standing and trading, as more than half of his wins have
come by KO or TKO. Miura has not fought since he knocked out
Blas Avena at WEC 33 in March but has won five of his past six
bouts.
Meanwhile,
Varner will defend the 155-pound crown for the first time against
unbeaten Marcus Hicks.
Varner
(14-2, 2-0 WEC) - who turned pro at age 19 - appears to be hitting
his stride as a mixed martial artist but remains a somewhat obscure
figure in global circles. He has lost only once, to Hermes Franca
at UFC 62 in August 2006, in his last 14 fights. All but one
of Varner's 14 career wins have come by knockout, technical knockout
or submission. The confident 23-year-old Arizonan stopped former
titleholder "Razor" Rob McCullough on strikes at WEC
32 in February to capture the lightweight belt.
His
opponent has never experienced defeat. Hicks (8-0, 3-0 WEC) has
finished all eight of his fights. He last appeared in March,
when he steamrolled Ed Ratcliff in 1:42 at WEC 33. A former Golden
Gloves boxing champion, the 32-year-old Texan once worked security
for Wal-Mart.
In
addition, Stann will make the first defense of his light heavyweight
championship against Steve Cantwell, a man against whom he already
holds a victory. He needed just 41 seconds to dispatch Cantwell
at WEC 26 in March 2007.
A
United States Marine, Stann (6-0, 5-0 WEC) last fought in March,
when he captured the light heavyweight crown with a TKO win over
Doug Marshall. Based out of Team Quest, Stann has never been
pushed beyond one round and, at 27, has emerged as a potential
cornerstone for the WEC promotion.
Unbeaten
outside of his loss to Stann, the 21-year-old Cantwell (5-1,
2-1 WEC) has won back-to-back fights. He scored his latest conquest
against Tim McKenzie at WEC 33 three months ago, as he needed
only 2:13 to finish the well-traveled veteran with a guillotine
choke. All five of Cantwell's victories have come by knockout,
TKO or submission.
Source: The Fight Network
|
Milton
Vieira
By Guilherme Cruz
“I had never trained as much as train now and I going to
value what I done, to try to submit or to knock out. I am ready
to finish the fight before the end”
Near
from his Godz of War debut, new North American MMA event, which
will be hold on July 21, Milton Vieira talked with TATAME about
his expectations for the fight and the trains with Darrel Gholar
at BTT. Confident of the victory, Miltinho also bet on Murilo
Bustamante, BTT leader that will fight at this event too. “I
had never trained as much as train now and I going to value what
I done, to try to submit or to knock out. I am ready to finish
the fight before the end”, said Miltinho, that also talked
about a return bout against Luiz Azeredo (Chute Boxe) and his
team mate win, Rousimar Toquinho, at the UFC. Check out below
the complete interview.
What
is your expectation for this fight?
As better as possible. Thanks to God everything is going right
and I am confident in my victory.
Do
you know who your opponent is? What will be your strategy?
I intend to impose my fight rhythm, valuating the preparation
I made and trying to finish the fight as faster as possible.
I am going to face the North-American David Gardner. I am very
well trained in everything. I had never trained as much as train
now and I going to value what I done, to try to submit or to
knock out. I am focus on my Muay Thai and at the submission that
is my game. If he fall down he will stay. I am ready to finish
the fight before the end.
How
were the trainings with Darrel Gholar?
It was very good. He helped me lot in the final phase of the
Wrestling train, training the take downs and sprawl... It was
very good his came, he accelerated the train. I want to take
the opportunity and thank everyone who is helping a lot in my
training. Everybody is giving me a lot of help, and I want to
thank my sponsorship ‘Oi Fm’.
Do
you have plans to go to the United States? Train at BTT Las Vegas
?
This time I'm not guaranteed to stay there because I want to
comeback and keep training. I have a lot to straighten out here
and I can stay there, I come and go. In another opportunity maybe,
I have a contract for three fights and, who knows, I can stay
there for a time.
What
do you expect for Murilo Bustamante fight?
He also well trained, he trained a lot and I think... I don’t
think I am sure that everything is going to be all right. He
is going to impose his rhythm and I can’t see any problems
for him in this fight.
Azeredo
is also at Godz of War… Do you expect a return bout against
him at the event?
I don’t expect a return bout, I do not expect anything.
I cheer on his victory, a Brazilian victory is always good. I
think he is going to be victorious, analyzing him and his opponent.
If we have another bout against him OK, if it not it’s also
OK.
What
did you think about Toquinho bout at the UFC?
I already expected that. I talked to everyone, I knew it would
be like that. I even thought that the submission took some times,
but it is normal, his debut... I was very happy. He deserves
much more than already happened with him. I think his way is
written in the stars, he certainty is going to make great fights,
is going to submit, and, in the future, for sure he is going
to dispute the belt, I do not know against whom, but will have
the opportunity. For his technical and star that he has, for
all he has been doing... He is very dedicated and deserves all
that is happening.
Source: Tatame
|
Saulo:
one proud brother
Six-time champion speaks with GRACIEMAG.com
Saulo
Ribeiro's name defines an era and became one of the best Jiu-Jitsu
practitioners of all times, reaching the six-gold medal mark
in black belt world championships. With so much experience, the
fighter passed on a little of his peculiar ability to his younger
brother, Xande Ribeiro, the big standout at the last World Championship,
recently held in California. At weight, the exploits of five-time
champion Xande don't yet match up to those of Saulo, at absolute,
though, the younger brother is two-time champ, an accomplishment
few can boast of. Away from competing in the cloth for some time,
Saulo was called upon by GRACIEMAG.com to review the Worlds from
the perspective of someone looking in from the outside, and,
of course, talk about his victorious brother.
How do you assess the performance of Gracie Humaita this Worlds?
Marvelous. I think the athletes incorporated the team spirit
and fought with great heart and determination. Therefore, They
were crowned in the end with thre great results: second place
among teams, female champion, and of course, the best fighter
in the world, my brother Xande.
Do you not miss competing in the gi? Will we ever see you compete
in a World championship again?
I'm a very intense person in everything I do. I seek the best
performance, therefore, if I can't dedicate myself 100% to training,
I'd rather operate in other areas, like structuring Jiu-Jitsu
University, which is a success, but takes up a good part of my
day, or with family matters. The drive and desire to fight still
exist in me, so yes, you can expect a possible return from me.
Your
brother just became absolute champion. How do you evaluate his
path at both weight and absolute?
My brother is bound to be successful and carry the crown of Jiu-Jitsu
for a long time. Not only for the love he has for the sport,
but also for his devotion and hard work. He never runs away from
training hard and perfecting his technique. As a person, he has
everything necessary to be a champion and a future legend of
the sport. Closing the deal in style, he overcame the one who,
in my opinion, is another of Jiu-Jitsu’s greatest and a
legitimate representative of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, Roger Gracie.
Thus, the Ribeiro family accumulates a total 12 world titles
and writes a big part of the sport’s history.
In
your opinion, is Xande the Best Jiu-Jitsu fighter today?
Not only in mine, but in that of the true connoisseurs of the
art. The opinion of the general public is always valid, but tends
to be partial and emotional.
You
guys are both going to fight MMA this year, right? How is the
preparation coming along? Is there anything new about your fight
or his?
The training is intense in the quest of adaptation to the new
method aiming at MMA. That way, we are structuring the personal
department of MMA inside the University of Jiu-Jitsu, and soon
I’ll be able to clear up the paths we’re going to take,
as well as the information regarding both Xande’s and Rafael
Lovato’s debuts.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
The
Great Fight North - Kang Booked for Dream 5
Mike Russell
mpete at Dream 5 on Monday, July 21 at the Osaka Castle Hall
in Osaka, Japan. No opponent has been announced, though the only
other middleweight confirmed for the show, Yoshihiro Akiyama,
handed Kang the first knockout loss of his career in October.
The
bout will complete Kang's current contract with the Dream promotion,
which was transferred from K-1 Hero's in 2007.
Kang
(29-10-1) returned home Saturday from Costa Rica, where the 32-year-old
was a guest on "El Gran Peleado" ("The Great Fighter"),
a new Central American MMA reality show similar to "The
Ultimate Fighter" series. The Canadian-raised French Korean
middleweight will be home just long enough to catch up on rest
and laundry before he hops a plane to Montreal. There, Kang will
jump into a month-long training camp with UFC welterweight champion
Georges St. Pierre, Nate Marquardt, Patrick Cote and Rashad Evans,
among others.
Kang
looks forward to returning to the ring and redeeming himself
after his latest loss - a first-round submission defeat to Armenian
Gegard Mousasi at Dream 2 in April. He blames the setback on
a number of factors.
"It
was a bunch of different things," Kang said. "I found
my focus again. I kind of lost it for a little while. I'm training
hard. I just can't wait to fight again and to get to Montreal
and really train hard with those guys."
One
factor Kang pointed to was his continued separation from his
American Top Team training facility in Coconut Creek, Fla. Visa
issues stemming from a misdemeanor criminal charge have made
it impossible for Kang to re-enter the United States, despite
the fact he has lived there since 2005. A victim of increased
security measures implemented after the 9/11 attacks, Kang remains
hopeful his lawyer will have the issues sorted out by year's
end.
His
inability to gain entry to the U.S. has also limited his options
on signing with American promotions. Kang has been in contract
talks with several promotions in the past year, but negotiations
will remain at a standstill until he can iron out his visa problems.
"I've
talked to organizations, like Affliction and the UFC, in the
past few months, but this visa thing is what's holding things
up," Kang said. "It's tough. If can't fight in the
U.S., how am I going to fight for them?"
Kang
turned down an opportunity to appear on "The Ultimate Fighter"
in order to compete in the Spirit Martial Challenge Heavyweight
Grand Prix, but said his interest in one day fighting for the
Las Vegas-based promotion has not waned. Kang won the Spirit
MC grand prix in 2007 but may have fought his last fight for
the South Korean promotion; his contract expires on Monday, June
30.
"I
don't know if I'll do another [Spirit MC] grand prix," Kang
said. "My contract's almost over with them. We're talking
to them, but we'll see."
A
couple of options exist for Kang here in Canada, including the
Calgary, Alberta-based joint venture between Raw Combat and Legacy
Fighting Championships, plus the Championship Fighting Group
LLC. Both promoters seem intent on inking top-tier competitors.
Source: The Fight Network
|
Vera’s
Future Uncertain
by Steven Marrocco
On
May 31st, Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight Brandon
Vera sat down to watch MMA make its network television debut
with Elite XC’s “Saturday Night Fights.” Kevin
“Kimbo Slice” Ferguson and James Thompson were entering
the third round, gassed and sloppy, and Slice landed a two-punch
combo that put Thompson on roller skates. Referee Dan Miragliotta
leapt in to save Thompson, and the crowd went wild.
“I
was like ‘c’mon man, I hope I don’t get that referee
when we’re fighting,” Vera tells FCF. “I remember
saying that to myself.”
Sometimes
fate has a strange sense of humor.
Vera
made his final preparations for his fight with Fabricio Werdum
at UFC 85 and left for England that week. In the locker rooms
of the O2 arena on the day of the fight, he noticed that a referee
hadn’t come by to introduce himself.
“Every
time that I’ve fought before, a referee would introduce
himself to you and say ‘I’ll be reffing your match
tonight, are there any questions, any concerns you might have?”
But
he didn’t give it much thought, because he was soon about
to face one of the top heavyweights in the world. A shot at the
heavyweight title was on the line. Vera’s trainers had prepared
him for a knock down, drag out war with Werdum.
When
Vera got into the cage, Mirgliotta was waiting for him. Vera
says Miragliotta didn’t give him the short verbal check-in
that many referees give once the fighter enters the cage.
The
result of Vera’s fight with Werdum is well known by now.
Werdum managed to mount Vera at the end of the first round and
began raining down strikes. Several of the punches connected,
and with twenty seconds to go, Miragliotta waved off the fight.
Vera immediately protested the decision.
Later
at the press conference, Vera continued to express his frustration
at the stoppage, and asked for an immediate rematch. Werdum declined.
FCF
caught up with Vera just after he’d returned home. He had
just watched the fight for the first time.
“It
sucks that it ended like that,” Vera said. “Fabricio
and I were supposed to have an all-out war till one of us went
to sleep or one of us got tapped. He didn’t show me anything
on the feet or on the ground that I didn’t expect, even
the mount we expected. We figured that if we got underneath Fabricio
we were going to have to sit there and eat a couple before I
could escape. I could hear him getting winded as he was punching,
that’s how in tune and focused I was while I was mounted,
talking to the referee.”
Vera
still claims he repeatedly told Miragliotta that he was ok, and
was not hurt from the blows. UFC president Dana White seemed
to sympathize, but didn’t promise Vera a rematch.
“Dana
kept saying he wanted me to go to 205, everybody just kept telling
me it was a bad stoppage,” Vera said. “It sucks when
things like that happen. MMA….she’s a bitch.”
Vera
is currently in San Jose, California, where he plans to stay
in shape by training with the American Kickboxing Academy for
a week. He doesn’t know what the future holds for him in
terms of opponents, but desperately wants a fight. There’s
a creeping voice in him that regrets talking to Miragliotta when
he was mounted.
“I’m
ready to get back in the cage right now,” he said.
Vera
doesn’t have any regrets about not being on network television,
though. When Elite first launched in January of 2007, Vera was
one of the first heavyweights they aggressively courted. Vera
was between contracts at the time, and made the rounds at their
first press conference in Los Angeles. Vera ended up re-signing
with the UFC, and returned to the Octagon against Tim Sylvia
at UFC 77, where he lost a unanimous decision. When he saw Slice
and Thompson tangle in front of a network audience—even
now—he still feels like he made the right decision.
“I’m
really happy with the UFC,” Vera said. “I’m happy
for Elite XC, I have nothing against them. They just take care
of their fighters. But I don’t have any regrets.”
Vera
still faces a lawsuit from his former manager Mark Dion in the
fallout from his limbo with the UFC. The California State Athletic
Commission first ruled in favor of Dion, essentially stating
that he acted in a “reasonable manner” to re-sign the
fighter to the Las Vegas based organization. Vera’s legal
team is currently preparing to defend the suit.
For
now, Vera must play the waiting game again before he gets the
opportunity to deliver the performance he feels he is capable
of. He is injury free and ready to go. That’s the bitch.
Source: Full Contact Fighter
|
Neer
vs. Diaz
Nathan Diaz has signed to fight Josh Neer on September 17th at
UFN 14. The fight will be taking place in Omaha, Nebraska and
will be either the main or co-main event.
Diaz
has submitted his last 7 opponents; 4 of them in the UFC and
3 in the TUF show. He will be looking for his 8th straight win
as he makes his way up the 155lbs rankings.
Neer
recently defeated Din Thomas and Joe Stevenson and will be looking
to defeat the brother of the fighter who last submitted him,
(Nick Diaz).
Source: Gracie Fighter
|
KIM
COUTURE LOOKS TO BE AFL BOUND
by Jeff Cain
Kim
"Sugar Free" Couture, wife of mixed martial arts legend
Randy "The Natural" Couture, makes her professional
mixed martial arts debut on June 20 at the Thomas & Mack
Center in Las Vegas against Kim Rose.
Following
her professional debut against Rose, Couture told MMAWeekly Radio
that she has been in negotiations with the American Fight League
and will likely sign with the Lexington, Ky. based organization.
"There
are a couple of leagues coming up that are building up the women's
league. The American Fight League, they just signed Tara Larosa,"
commented Couture. "They've contacted me. And they've got
a few other girls getting ready to sign with them, so I'm more
headed that way."
The
AFL recently signed Larosa, widely regarded as the number one
female fighter in the world, to a lucrative, multi-fight deal
and have announced plans to expand their women's division. Kim
Couture is likely their next big signing in the women’s
division.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Quote
of the Day
“He
who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.”
Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821, French General and Politician
|
UFC
AND WEC SEND FIGHTERS TO MEET U.S. TROOPS
In late June, the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization
and World Extreme Cagefighting will send UFC and WEC superstars
BJ Penn, Michael Bisping,
Urijah Faber, and Carlos Condit across the globe to meet and
greet the troops of the United States Military stationed in Afghanistan.
The fighters will have the honor of visiting with various units
during this trip, and Penn, Bisping, Faber, and Condit will tour
a total of six military bases.
“We
are honored to send UFC and WEC fighters to visit the men and
women of the United States Military,” said UFC President
Dana White. “We are pleased to be giving back to such a
great cause; many of our fighters have served in the military
and understand what a great contribution our troops are making
overseas.”
“The
U.S. Military admires the sport of mixed martial arts. We will
be pleased to welcome UFC and WEC legends to our bases in Afghanistan.
Their presence will certainly help boost the morale of the soldiers
which is so important during their duties overseas,” said
Special Sergeant Bart Murphy of the 101st Airborne Division.
Both
the UFC and WEC have a strong commitment to the men and women
of the armed forces. On December 13, 2006 the UFC held a spectacular
event at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in front of 3,000 soldiers.
The organization also has a long running agreement with the Armed
Forces Network and consistently visits the troops at various
bases across the United States.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
EliteXC
"Return of the King'' Tomorrow!
Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, Hawaii
June 14, 2008
3
Rounds - 3 Minutes - 185 pounds
Kepa Madeiros (debut) vs. Carl Barton (1-0)
3
Rounds - 3 Minutes - 135 pounds
Russell Doane (Waipahu, HI) vs. Dwayne Haney (1-0)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 160 pounds
PJ Dean
(Waianae, HI)
vs. Dean Lista (Kalihi, HI)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 265 pounds
Lolohea Mahe (1-0) of Kula, Maui, vs. Chris Bernard (1-1) of
Waianae at
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 160 pounds
Kaleo Kwan
(Waimanalo, HI)
vs. Mike Aina (Hilo, HI)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 140 pounds
Mark Oshiro (Pearl City, HI) vs. Chris "Red Bull'' Willems
(Hilo, HI)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 185 pounds
Kala Kolohe (Waianae, HI) vs. Bubba McDaniel (Dallas, TX)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - Heavyweight
Dave "Pee Wee" Herman (Indiana) vs. Ron Waterman (Greeley,
CO)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 205 pounds
Rafael Feijao (Brazil) vs. Wayne Cole (Oklahoma City, OK) at
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 185 pounds
Murilo "Ninja" Rua (Brazil) vs. Tony Bonello (Australian)
3
Rounds - 5 Minutes - 160 pounds
Nick Diaz (Stockton, CA) vs. Muhsin Corbbrey (Hilton Head, S.C.)
EliteXC
Lightweight Championship
5 Rounds - 5 Minutes - 160 pounds
KJ Noons (San Diego, CA) vs. Yves Edwards (Coconut Creek, FL)
|
UFC's
Dana White on Big Announcement
I just interviewed Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana
White who talked to us about a variety of topics, including the
unveiling of a line of fighter action figures.
But
many UFC fans tuned in to see if White was going to use our platform
to make the big announcement he said told ESPN The Magazine's
Ryan Hockensmith he would make.
Since
White uttered those words, rumors have been floating around the
Web. White would not reveal what the announcement was, but denied all three of these
rumors:
Recently
retired boxer Floyd Mayweather is about to sign a UFC contract.
The
UFC is about to enter a partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment.
WWE would become a minority partner and take over sales and marketing.
The
announcement will be about a new television deal with either
Fox or ABC/ESPN.
White
also denied that the UFC was about to go public any time soon,
a rumor that started getting some traction after the UFC put
news of White's interview with CNBC on its web site.
Source: CNBC |
The
guessing game: Dana White's "HUGE" announcement
We
are a little more than a day away from Dana’s announcement
that will blow the collective mind of the Mixed Martial Arts
world. This thing is taking on a life of its own and that’s
exactly what Dana wanted with a proclamation like that. Of course,
for a guy who doesn’t deliver on a lot of his promises,
this is one instance he can’t wiggle out of with something
lame like “we have a new advertiser!” or “Chuck
Liddell will fight Anderson Silva!” We need something groundbreaking.
It has to be huge or he wouldn’t have rented out a place
to take his employees to reveal the big news like he claims.
Naturally,
rumors have been flying furiously. First, it was that the UFC
was signing Floyd Mayweather after his abrupt retirement. Then
it was that Dana White and a group of investors, led by Vince
McMahon, was going to buy the UFC from Zuffa. Then the logical
assumptions were made that it would be a network TV deal. More
rumors spread that the UFC might be sold to FOX. Another popular
rumor was that the UFC was going public. Dana White has denied
all of these rumors.
In
my mind, that essentially guarantees that it’s something
listed above. That’s not fun though, so let’s indulge
Dana and welcome all conjecture into this discussion. Because
he claims it’s something out of left field, I think it’s
time we put on our creative hats and really try to discover what
this announcement could be. If we work together, surely we can
guess the details of Thursday’s announcement that will change
the MMA landscape. Let’s get ridiculous.
What
are your ideas? Here are a few of mine.
UFC
fighters will be allowed to choose a weapon before entering the
Octagon: Few things could change mixed martial arts like the
addition of weapons. Fighters would have to take years of training
and throw them out the window. Practicing a triangle choke means
little when the man chasing you around the Octagon is wielding
a chainsaw.
The
UFC will have a PPV on the Moon: The UFC has already spread overseas
so the only logical expansion area is now outer space. This could
revolutionize life as we know it because if Dana White can put
on the first athletic competition on the moon, it could pave
the way for people to actually live there. This definitely fits
the “out of left field” aspect of the announcement
and would really change the MMA landscape as Moon-fighting would
force fighters to alter their training methods.
Dana
White will open a new species class for chimps: New weight classes
aren’t worth renting out another facility, but a new species
class absolutely is. FOX had great success with the Man vs. Beast
shows and Animal Planet has turned into a mint based on all the
great animal fighting footage they show, so it would make sense
for White to follow. Inter-weight matches can be big draws, but
imagine inter-species matches. Chuck Liddell vs. Anderson Silva
would be interesting, but more interesting than Chuck Liddell
vs. “Bozo the chain-smoking chimp”? I think not.
Future
fights won’t be confined to the Octagon: This could potentially
devastate TV ratings, but from now on all fights can happen anywhere
at any time during the day of a PPV event. If Chuck Liddell was
to take on Wanderlei Silva, then as soon as the two ran into
each other on fight day, even if it’s in a McDonald’s
parking lot, the fight would be legit. It would combine two of
life’s greatest contests. Fighting and hide-and-go-seek.
Source: MMA Stomping Grounds |
Jakks
signs licensing deal with UFC
Jakks Pacific
Inc. has signed a four-year deal securing the master toy license
for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the company said Tuesday.
Terms
of the deal were not disclosed.
The
UFC product line will feature a series of collector-focused action
figures featuring some of the UFC's most famous fighters, such
as Chuck Liddell, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Nogueira, Michael Onzuka,
Michael Bisping and Anderson Silva.
The
line will also include the UFC Octagon ring and role-play items.
"We
are thrilled to have JAKKS on board as our first official UFC
action figure partner," UFC President Dana White said in
a statement.
"The
demand for UFC is tremendous, and through this relationship with
JAKKS, we can present authentic UFC products and have them available
to our loyal UFC fans all around the world."
Malibu's
Jakks (NASDAQ: JAKK) designs and markets a broad range of toys
and consumer products.
Source: Biz Journals |
ANNOUNCEMENT~!
So
in case you didn’t hear yet, the UFC announced a deal that
will allow you, the wonderous public, to buy action figures of
their fighters. God knows how much the fighters will get for
having their image on carved into plastic, but then again what
the fighters want has never really been a concern of the internet,
has it?
Well,
there’s a lot of folks still holding their breath for Thursday
in the hopes some sort of super announcement that will change
the world will occur. The rampant speculation has been bordering
on retarded; Floyd Mayweather Jr. signing with the UFC, a WWE
buyout, Fox TV deals, and more. Of course, what’s on the
UFC’s own website?
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=12696
Why,
its a (likely) giant spoiler for Thursday! On their own website,
they’re telling you that its a bunch of merchandising deals
for JCPenneys and Visa. In other words, the dreams of many were
just that. Dreams. And really absurd ones, to boot. What is so
disheartening about this ultimately is the way one “journalist”
(and I use the term as loosely as possible) after another after
another has bullrushed into repeating such insane claims. Ultimately,
this activity has given them a significant amount of validity
within the hardcore fan community by merely repeating them ad
nausem. It happens whilst those who supposedly tow the line of
high end reporting don’t even think to question the value
of the sources from which such enormous news is being emitted.
For instance, here is MMAOpinion.com’s terrific look at
the story:
Apparently
a “realiable source” has stated Vince McMahon and Dana
White are buying the UFC from the Fertitta brothers through the
remaining shares of the company. McMahon will not have much input,
but instead, he will assist with financing the deal and making
this happen. Of course this is just one variant of the rumors
being spewed out left and round on the internet.
Who
cares about checking sources? Publish it, guys! And then make
sure to report about the buzz you just created by posting a story
with no legs later on. What better way to justify your own existence?
And then there’s MMAPayout.com:
Last
night a poster on the Underground Forums added the following
rumor “from a reliable source” to the mix: “a
group of investors led by Dana White have agreed in principle
to purchase the UFC from Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta for an undisclosed
amount. Included in this investment group is WWE’s Vince
McMahon who will now own a minority stake in the company. They
also have plans on taking the company public by years end.”
Wow.
Nothing demands being mentioned on the website of a claimed leader
in MMA coverage more than a fairly anonymous post on a message
board that’s been filled with complete non-truths in the
past. This was merely just a small taste of the fine coverage
provided. Going back just a day or so:
Inside
the industry, the guessing game has advanced past *whether* the
UFC’s sale is Dana’s big announcement and onto *who*
such a sale might involve. Odds on favorites include FOX, Golden
Boy, and WWE (NOTE: For the conspiracy theorist in all of us,
WWE has an ambiguous press conference of its own scheduled for
Thursday).
A
change in ownership is one of the few things imaginable that
would warrant White’s hype and circumstance. Of course this
wouldn’t be the first time the UFC over promised and under
delivered on an major announcement. And there’s always the
possibility, perhaps even likelihood, that whatever White has
in store, no matter how grand it truly is, will be overshadowed
by the speculation that has proceeded it. But this feels different.
Note
the way this was written. There isn’t just possiblity, but
actually a sense of certainty that this time, the unmentioned
voices of the MMA shadows are really positively sure that the
UFC is to be sold, and voila, off to the races! This is not journalism,
folks. This is not reporting facts. This is thinly veiled bullshit
intended to draw in readers and bring increased numbers of new
IP addresses for the purpose of selling ad space. Who are these
inside industry people? How often have they been correct before?
”But this feels different”? On what basis? Because
ESPN The Magazine printed it? Maybe the UFC is going to get a
weekly fight show, or run Japan, bring in another organization’s
ace, or any of the other wide array of things they’ve announced
or openly discussed in the past that never, ever happened. Maybe
its not going to be any of those things, and it will be another
situation like so many others prior in which they just announce
that which we already know (in this case, merchandising). Given
that the latter happens much more often than the former, I’m
gonna bet that.
What
the MMA media has done here is spit a lot of e-wrestling fed
idiocy while passing it off as intelligent commentary, and using
the spikes in interest such outrageous claims generate as the
justification behind it.
EDIT
6/11/08: Well, if you believe Sam Caplan, the big announcement
was to announce that MMA was approved in the state of NY, which,
surprise surprise, would have been something that you, me, and
everyone else would have heard about had it occurred two days
in advance. And it didn’t end up happening at all. Will
anyone have learned a lesson? Hell no they didn’t, because
they probably saw their viewership fly through the roof over
the last two days.
Source: MMA Weekly |
UFC
Gets Major Boost with Industry-Shaking Merchandise Deals
It’s a day many hoped for, and after a flurry of activity
that has taken the industry by storm, fans of the Ultimate Fighting
Championship will soon be able to collect Jakks Pacific UFC figures,
use UFC-branded Bic lighters and Silver Buffalo watches, shop
with a UFC credit card, and pick up UFC apparel at JC Penney
stores. This unprecedented series of announcements truly stamps
the UFC as the premier brand in the sport of mixed martial arts
as well as the home of the elite fighters in the game.
“This
puts our merchandise on a global scale,” said Randy Klein,
the UFC’s Vice President of Licensing and Merchandising.
“The fans have been waiting for UFC product for years and
now we’ve joined up with some of the biggest and best companies
in the world to produce authentic UFC-licensed products.”
For
Klein, who worked closely with each company on these deals, getting
these major names on board was an easy sell considering the reach
and popularity of the UFC.
“The
companies see the future of this sport and the loyalty of the
fanbase, and the potential for enormous growth,” he said.
“They see this taking over boxing and they can’t get
over how recognizable these athletes are. You can’t even
name five boxers now and that sport has really changed from the
days of Ali and Tyson. So to the companies, they see working
with the UFC as a tremendous opportunity to get involved with
an emerging sport, mixed martial arts.”
Already,
UFC-branded Bic lighters are hitting retail shelves, and after
April’s ‘soft’ launch of UFC t-shirts at 450 JC
Penney stores, the retailer will create “UFC Hot Zones”
in August that will sell shirts and headwear in the Young Men’s
department. Silver Buffalo, which has developed licensed products
for such brands as WWE, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley,
and Kiss, will come on board this summer with UFC-branded watches,
barware, bar accessories, lighting, wall décor, and billiards
and darts accessories, and on June 15th, US Bank launches its
UFC VISA card with no annual fee and the option to receive points
for UFC merchandise.
“There’s
going to be incredible UFC-branded product,” said Klein.
“We’re establishing a benchmark of MMA product that
no one has ever seen before. We’re going to be in retailers
all over the world with our video game, apparel, and sports collectibles.
It’s
ad
really an exciting time right now.”
Perhaps
no items have been more demanded by fans in recent years than
action figures, and thankfully, those prayers have been answered.
There
are also going to be more than a few happy faces when official
UFC action figures hit major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target,
K-Mart, and Toys R Us in Fall of 2009. Expected in this launch
will be Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell, Forrest Griffin,
Brock Lesnar, Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira, Michael
"The Count" Bisping and UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson
"The Spider" Silva. Octagon playsets and role-play
items based on the UFC brand and its classic and current roster
of star fighters are also planned.
Needless
to say, the UFC has come a long way since its humble beginnings,
and it has no intentions of stopping anytime soon when it comes
to delivering quality MMA action and quality MMA products to
its fans.
“In
everything we do, whether it’s television, pay-per-view,
fights, or merchandise, we do it for the fans,” said Klein.
“And our fans are smart people. They know when there’s
an authentic product out there and they’re very loyal. So
when we’re providing merchandise, we’re using the same
philosophy – quality, innovative, authentic mixed martial
arts products with the UFC brand and our best fighters.”
Source: UFC |
No
UFC For Money Mayweather
What's
next for Floyd Mayweather?
TSS
has no idea, but one thing we do know for sure, is that Money
Mayweather will not be switching his allegiance, and taking a
crack at MMA, at least not in the UFC.
During
a Tuesday interview on CBNC, the business news cable channel,
UFC president Dana White was asked point blank to respond to
some of the rumors that have been floated about concerning a
mega announcement to come on Thursday.
Will
Floyd Mayweather be coming aboard UFC, White was asked?
"No,"
he replied, point blank.
So,
we continue to speculate if and when Floyd will return to boxing,
and how he'll fill up his day in the meantime. I mean, man can
only bet on so many ballgames before it gets boring, right?
SPEEDBAG:
The retraction or the correction always gets about 1/100th the
coverage that the initial story gets. Some of you may have missed
it, but the stripper who accused Oscar De La Hoya of being a
cross-dresser tried to sue the Golden Boy for $25 million, for
slander, of all things. Milana Dravnel yesterday dropped her
suit against Oscar, as it appeared her case was flimsy, with
Oscar presenting expert's testimony that the provocative photos
that made the rounds of the Net last September were faked. No
word on whether there was a settlement paid to Dravnel.
Source: Sweet Science |
Miller provokes Jacare "This
kid is overrated"
With
only three days till the bout between Jason "Mayhem" Miller and Ronaldo Jacare,
which is being seen as one of the most techncical of Dream 4,
in Tokyo, the American decided to spice things up. Miller is
an MMA veteran, with 26 professional fights (21w), is present
on some top 10 lists for his weight group and has a solid game,
which has given a hard time to some big names in the sport like
Denis Kang and Robbie Lawler.
In
the first phase of the middleweight GP he beat Japanese fighter
Katsuyori Shibata with certain ease, having also posed for photos
smiling and giving the thumbs up while mounted on his adversary.
This cocky side to Miller may displease some fighters, who see
it as disrespectful.
Jaca
had already spoken about this factor in an interview with GRACIEMAG.com
at the start of the month. "I think one can be cocky, but
to disrespect a fighter, I feel is ridiculous. To disrespect
a guy who's there to help you grow, regardless of whether he
is better or worse. He's an experienced guy, but he's nuts. If
he does that crazy stuff with me it won't go past the first five
minutes," said Jaca, who has only 9 MMA fights on his MMA
record and beat Ian Murphy in the first stage of the tournament.
Today,
in an interview on sherdog.com, Miller decided to speak about
his future opponent, and didn't adopt a diplomatic tone, much
to the contrary, Jaca lashed out.
"This
kid is overrated, you know what I'm saying? He fought with a
bunch of chumps and now thinks he's great. I've fought tougher
guys in the sport and beat a lot of them. Am I expecting an easy
fight? NO. But at the same time, I love the fact people think
I'm going to get killed because he has a bunch of videos on the
internet where he submits some guys. Most ground fighters get
scared and just hold the guy and try to stall the fight. I try
to speed it up, I don't want o put the fans to sleep," said
the spontaneous Mayhem.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
NEW
YORK STILL UNDECIDED ON MMA SANCTIONING
The legalization of mixed martial arts in the state of New York
has not been decided yet according to representatives in New
York State Assemblyman Steve Englebright’s office as confirmed
to MMAWeekly.com today.
Reports
surfaced earlier on Wednesday that the Tourism, Arts, and Sports
Development committee had voted down the bill introduced to them
that would sanction the sport of MMA in the state of New York,
but according the latest news, the vote will be laid aside until
next week.
According
to the representatives in Assemblyman Englebright’s office,
there were members of the committee who were undecided in their
final vote for the bill and because of timing and other committee
members who were not present during this process, they decided
to push back the final vote until next week.
The
sanctioning of MMA in New York has been a major endeavor of promotions
all over the U.S., with the efforts being spearheaded by the
Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The
vote will take place next week during the committee’s next
official meeting.
Source: MMA Weekly |
EliteXC
Strong in Sports Ratings
1 FOX NASCAR
SPRINT DOVER
FOX Sun 2:17 PM 4.5/ Total Viewers 7,109,000
2
CBS ELITEXC SAT NT FIGHTS(S)-05/31/2008
CBS Sat 9:00 PM 3.0/ 4,851,000
3
FOX NASCAR SPRINT PRE-SHOW
FOX Sun 1:30 PM 2.7/ 4,327,000
4
NBC NHL STANLEY CUP FNL#3(S)-05/28/2008
NBC Wed 8:00 PM 2.4/ 4,041,000
5
FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN
CW Fri 8:00 PM 2.3/ 3,849,000
-Courtesy
Medialife
Source: MMA Payout |
Quote
of the Day
“Only
when we give joyfully, without hesitation or thought of gain,
can we truly know what love means.”
Leo Buscaglia, 1924-1998, American Author and Expert on Love
and Human Relationships
|
Worlds:
complete results
Check out who shone in Long Beach
The
party is over, but for those who were at the California State
University Gymnasium last weekend, the memories are everlasting.
Xande Ribeiro was crowned the great champion as he beat Roger
Gracie in the absolute final and won also among heavyweights,
but the Gracie Humaita star wasn’t the only one to leave
Long Beach in a good mood.
Many
champions were crowned, from the lightest of blue belts to the
heaviest of black belts. And, so that all champions are remembered,
GRACIEMAG.com made it a point to publish the results of all categories.
On
a side note, the men’s teams title went to Alliance, followed
by Gracie Humaita and Gracie Barra. Among women, Gracie Humaita
was the winner, with Gracie Barra in second and alliance in third.
For
those who couldn’t make it to Long Beach, GRACIEMAG is preparing
a special edition, so that the best moments are immortalized
in your collection. Just wait and see.
Click
here for the complete results
of the 2008 World Jiu-Jitsu Championships.
Blue
Belt Juvenile Médio
Primeiro
Francisco Iturralde Alliance
Segundo
(2nd Place) Lucas Pinto Relson Gracie
Terceiro
Andre Vaughan Team Mica
Terceiro
Michael Petresky Evolution Bjj
Blue Belt Meio Pesado
Primeiro
Dan Schon BJJ Revolution Team
Segundo
Anthony Moreno Kugtar
Terceiro
Tryfon Sathopoulos Gracie Humaita
Terceiro
(3rd Place) Randall Silva Relson Gracie (From Kauai!)
Brown/Black
Belt Meio Pesado
Primeiro
Ana Laura Cordeiro Gracie Barra
Segundo
Penny Thomas Gracie Humaita
Terceiro
(3rd Place) Christina Thomas Relson Gracie
Source: Gracie Magazine |
U.S.
National Junior Olympic Boxing Championships
The Official
Hawaii Delegation to the U.S. National Junior Olympic Boxing
Championships on June 14-22nd at the U.S.O.E.C. (United States
Olympic Education Center) at Marquette, Michigan consists of:
106lbs- Joshua McShane (Five-O B.C.),
110- Kurtis Hagi (Honolulu B.C.),
114- Emmit Bolibol (Hawaii Youth B.C.),
119- Ansen Jordan-Armitage (Five-O B.C.),
132- Ezra Cabang (A.P. Big Island B.C.),
145- Keanu Sabado (Honolulu B.C.),
154- Joshua Nakagawa (SouthSide Maui B.C.),
176- Faleauto Manutulila (Hawaii Youth B.C.), Females-
119- Chazzette Sau (SouthSide Maui B.C.),
125-Helena DelaCruz- Lopes (Five-O B.C),
Team Manager/Regional Coordinator- Bruce Kawano,
Coach- Danny Kaheaku, Coach- Nante Manangan, and Official- Don
Tsarks.
Coaches going at their own expense to assist the team will be
Don Casil, Shane McShane III, and Anthony Pagan.
Respectfully
Submitted,
Bruce
Kawano,
USA-Boxing Hawaii Junior Olympic Chairman.
Regional Coordinator Region 13.
2008 Team Manager- Hawaii Boxing Team.
Ringside Board of Advisors.
NMU Task Force Appointed Member.
|
Pacific
Submission Championships
Open to all Men, Women and Kids 5-14 & Juniors 15-17 years
old.
Saturday June 28th & Sunday June 29th 2008
Location:
Blaisdell Convention Center
777 Ward Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
Fees
(Must Pre-Register on or before June 25th at www.grapplingtournaments.com or by mail for these
prices)
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships - Saturday June 28th - Men,
Women & Juniors - $50
No Gi Submission Grappling - Sunday June 29th - Men, Women &
Juniors - $50
BOTH events for ONLY $75
1 day Spectator ticket: $10 (must purchase online or $20 a day)
2 day spectator ticket: $15 (must purchase online or $20 a day)
Pre-Registration:
Enrollment (3 options)
1) Mail a signed Registration Form along with a money order or
check made payable to:
GTA Tournaments - Mail to: 17424 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach,
CA 92647 Note: postmarked no later than Monday June 23rd)
2) Register online: www.grapplingtournaments.com
(Note: Online registration must be completed by Wednesday July
25th)
3) Night before or day of Registration: $20 late fee will apply
Show up to either weigh-in time to register.
Weigh-Ins
(2 options) At OTM Fight Shop or Tournament Location. Note: There
will be no weight allowance. If an athlete is within 3 pounds
of their weigh class they will have until an hour and a half
before their scheduled division to make weight.
Option 1: Day before Weigh-ins will be Friday, June 27th, 2008
between 10am-7pm at 3 OTM Fight Shops:
1255 S. Beretania St. Honolulu, HI 96814 (808) 591-6620
17424 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, CA 92647 (714) 847-6786
2414 Artesia Blvd., Redondo Beach, CA 90278 (310) 376-3586
Option
2: Day of Weigh-ins: You can also weigh-in the day you compete
1 hour 30 minutes before your scheduled cut off time at the tournament
location.
For Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and/or No-Gi Submission Grappling Divisions
Morning of the event before your divisions scheduled deadline
time at the tournament location. See schedule below for deadline
times. (Anyone arriving after deadline will be penalized an additional
$20 if the division has not started yet.)
Note: This is the earliest a division will be called. It does
not necessarily reflect the actual fight time.
Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu Divisions run on Saturday (Must be weighed in and ready
to compete by listed weigh-in times.)
Kids all divisions (5-10 & 11-14): Weigh in before 9am Compete
at 10am
Juniors all divisions (15-17): Weigh in before 10:00am Compete
at 11:30am
White Belt Executive & Masters: Weigh-in before 9am. Compete
at 10am
White Belt Adult: Weigh-in before 9am. Compete at 11am
Blue Belt Executives & Masters: Weigh-in before 11am. Compete
at 1pm
Blue Belt Adult: Weigh-in before 11am. Compete at 2 pm
Women all divisions: Weigh-in before 1 pm. Compete at 3 pm
Purple Belt Executive & Masters: Weigh-in before 2 pm. Compete
at 4 pm
Purple Belt Adult: Weigh-in before 2 pm. Compete at 4 pm
Brown & Black Belt: Weigh-in before 2 pm. Compete at 4:30
pm
Schedule
For No-Gi Submission Grappling Divisions on Sunday:
Kids all divisions (5-10 & 11-14): Weigh in before 9am -
Compete at 10am
Juniors all divisions (15-17): Weigh in before 9:30am - Compete
at 11:30am
Beginner Executive & Masters: Weigh-in before 9am - Compete
at 10am
Beginner Adult: Weigh-in before 9:30 am - Compete at 11:30am
Advanced Executives & Masters: Weigh-in before 11:00am -
Compete at 1:30pm
Advanced Adult: Weigh-in before 11:30am - Compete at 2pm
Women all divisions: Weigh-in before 1pm - Compete at 2:30pm
Intermediate Executives and Masters: Weigh-in before 1pm - Compete
at 3pm
Intermediate Adult: Weigh-in before 1:30pm - Compete at 3:30pm
Coaches
- Coaches will be required to check-in online or by phone and
provide a list of registered students to receive credentials.
STRICTLY ENFORCED! Email director@grapplingtournaments.com or call (714) 847-6787
for credentials.
Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu Championship Division & Rules o Saturday June 28th
BJJ Skill Levels:
Men & Women: White Belt, Blue Belt, Purple Belt, Brown Belt
& Black Belt
Kids
(5-14) & Juniors (15-17 years): White, Yellow, Orange &
Green Belt
Length
of BJJ Matches:
White: 5 minutes
Blue: 6 minutes
Purple: 7 minutes
Brown: 8 minutes
Black: 10 Minutes
Juniors: 4 minutes
Executive (30-39) / Masters (40+): White/Blue belts 4 minutes
o Purple/Brown belts 6min o Black belts 7 minutes
Male
Adult BJJ Weight Classes: (Note: Weigh-in WITHOUT uniform)
Rooster: 121lbs. and below
Super Feather: 122-134 lbs.
Feather: 135-147 lbs.
Light: 148-160 lbs.
Middle: 161-174 lbs.
Light-Heavy: 174-187 lbs.
Heavy: 188-202 lbs.
Super-Heavy: 203-221 lbs.
Unlimited: 221 lbs. and over
Juniors
(13-17) BJJ Weight Classes:
Lightweight: 114.9 lbs. and below
Welterweight: 115-129.9 lbs.
Middleweight: 130-149.9 lbs.
Cruiserweight: 150-169.9 lbs.
Heavyweight: 170 lbs. and over
Women's
BJJ Weight Classes:
Class A: 119.9 lbs and below
Class B: 120-134.9 lbs.
Class C: 135-149.9 lbs.
Class D: 150 lbs. and over
Women's Absolute: Open Weight, Open Skill
Executive
& Masters BJJ Weight Classes:
Lightweight: 159.9 lbs and below
Middleweight: 160-179.9 lbs.
Cruiserweight: 180-199.9 lbs.
Heavyweight: 200 lbs. and over
BJJ
Point System:
Takedown: 2 points
Knee on Belly: 2 points
Sweep or Reversal w/ legs: 2 points
Passing Opponent's Guard: 3 points
Mounted Position: 4 points
Back Control w/ Hooks: 4 points
(All positions must be held for 3 full seconds)
BJJ
Illegal Techniques:
White Belt, Blue belt, Executives and Masters: No Leg Locks EXCEPT
Straight Ankle Lock. No Neck or Cervical Cranks, Wrist Locks,
Slamming or Slicers.
Purple - Black: No Twisting Leg locks EXCEPT Inside Toe Hold,
No Neck or Cervical Cranks or Slamming.
Submission
Grappling Divisions & Rules o Sunday June 29th
Skill
Levels:
Beginner: Under 2 years
Intermediate: 2 years to 4 years
Advanced: More than 4 years
Kids & Juniors: Beginner = Less than 18 months o Advanced
= 18 months or greater
Women: Beginner = Less than 18 months o Advanced = 18 months
or greater
Executive: 30-39 years - Beginner = Less than 18 months o Advanced
= 18 months or greater
Masters: Over 40 years - Beginner = Less than 18 months o Advanced
= 18 months or greater
Length
of No-Gi Matches:
Beginner: 4 minutes
Intermediate: 5 minutes
Advanced: 6 minutes
Kids & Juniors: 4 minutes
Women: Beginner = 4 minutes o Advanced = 6 minutes
Executive/Masters: Beginner = 4 minutes o Advanced = 5 minutes
Men's
No-Gi Weight Classes:
Flyweight: 139.9 lbs. and below
Featherweight: 140-149.9 lbs.
Lightweight: 150-159.9 lbs.
Welterweight: 160-169.9 lbs.
Middleweight: 170-179.9 lbs.
Cruiserweight: 180-189.9 lbs.
Light-Heavyweight: 190-199.9 lbs.
Heavyweight: 200-209.9 lbs.
Superweight: 210 lbs. and over
Children's
No-Gi Weight Classes: Rough guideline. Youth will be matched
as closely as possible.
Bantamweight: 50 lbs. and below
Flyweight: 50-59.9 lbs.
Featherweight: 60-69.9 lbs.
Lightweight: 70-79.9 lbs.
Welterweight: 80-94.9 lbs.
Middleweight: 94-109.9 lbs.
Cruiserweight: 110-124.9 lbs.
Heavyweight: 124 lbs. and over
Kids
& Juniors No-Gi Weight Classes:
Lightweight: 114.9 lbs. and below
Welterweight: 115-129.9 lbs.
Middleweight: 130-149.9 lbs.
Cruiserweight: 150-169.9 lbs.
Heavyweight: 170 lbs. and over
Women's
No-Gi Weight Classes:
Class A: 119.9 lbs and below
Class B: 120-134.9 lbs.
Class C: 135-149.9 lbs.
Class D: 150 lbs. and over
Women's Absolute: Open Weight, Open Skill
Executive
& Masters No-Gi Weight Classes:
Lightweight: 159.9 lbs and below
Middleweight: 160-179.9 lbs.
Cruiserweight: 180-199.9 lbs.
Heavyweight: 200 lbs. and over
No-Gi
Point System:
Takedown landing in Half or Full Guard: 2 points
Takedown to Side Control or Mount: 3 points
Sweep or Reversal w/ legs: 2 points
Passing Opponent's Guard: 3 points
Mounted Position: 4 points
Back Control w/ Hooks: 4 points
(All positions must be held for minimum 3 seconds)
No-Gi
Illegal Techniques:
Beginner, Novice, Executive & Masters Divisions: No Leg Locks
EXCEPT Straight Ankle Lock. No Neck or Cervical Cranks, Wrist
Locks, Slamming or Slicers. Intermediate: No Twisting Leg locks
EXCEPT Inside Toe Hold, No Neck or Cervical Cranks, Wrist Locks,
Slamming or Slicers.
Advanced: No Slamming
Detailed
Rules:
The object of the competition is to control and submit your opponent.
Ways to win:
1) Causing your opponent to physically or verbally Tapout or
quit by using a technique within the guidelines of the rules
in each set division. (All competitors must be aware of dangerous
techniques and know how to Tapout.)
2) Highest score at end of regulation time period or overtime.
3) Referee Stoppage
1.
Hygiene: At weigh-ins all competitors will be checked for communicable
diseases, not limited to but including ring-worm, staph, herpes
and impetigo.
2.
Tie Breakers: There will be a one minute overtime in the event
of a draw. At the end of the 1 minute overtime if the were no
points scored it will immediately turn to sudden death in which
the first point scored gets the victory. The stalling rule will
be enforced with ZERO tolerance in overtime. The referee will
give 2 warnings and you will be deducted -1 point and given the
loss if you do not go after the victory.
3.
No Stalling: The referee will issue warning for the 1st offense
of stalling (i.e. backing out of the guard without engaging,
butt scooting, fleeing the ring to avoid takedown/submission
attempts). The 2nd offense will result in a 2 point deduction.
A 3rd offense will result in a 3 point deduction. A 4th offense
will result in a DQ.
4.
Leg Locks: Leg Locks are ILLEGAL in all kids, masters, executive,
and novice divisions. Straight ankle locks are legal for Beginner.
Straight ankle, inside figure four toe holds, straight knee bars
and calf slicers are legal for Intermediate. , All leg locks
are legal in the Advanced Men's division. Note: Reaping (crossing
you leg across your opponents body while attacking a foot) is
illegal in all divisions except Intermediate and advanced adult.
5.
Illegal Techniques in all divisions: No strikes, biting, eye
gouging (includes chin to eye), head butting, small join manipulation
(finger and toe locks), hair pulling, or ear pulling, neck cranks.
6.
Slamming: ZERO tolerance on slamming. This is to avoid slamming
to escape the guard and various submissions from the guard. A
competitor will be immediately disqualified NOTE - Takedowns
are not considered slamming, unless intent to injure is determined
by the referee.
7.
Neck Cranks and Twister: Neck cranks and Twister (wrestling guillotine)
are only legal in the advanced division. Intermediate division
may use the Twister setup to execute the banana split or calf
slicer.
8.
Takedowns and control: Any position must be held for a MINUMUM
of 3 full seconds before points will be awarded. If you take
your opponent down and Mount him you would receive 3 points for
the take down AFTER 3 seconds AND then 3 more seconds for the
4 point mount. Therefore you must maintain the position for 3
seconds per set of points. Guard pass points are established
when the opponent's shoulders are flat on the ground and your
legs are completely clear of their legs. If you go from standing
to a guys back with BOTH his knees on the ground for 3 full seconds
you receive 2 points for reversal.
9.
Sweeps/Reversals: Reversal of position points are given when
one opponent reverses from the bottom to the top position and
maintained for a full three seconds. The reversal has to be used
from your guard or in the immediate transition of someone passing
your guard. For example if your passing my guard and I IMMEDIATELY
put you on your back I receive reversal points. Note: Rolling
someone over when you are mounted or in side control is an escape
not a reversal.
10. No-Gi Attire:, boardshorts, fight shorts, singlets, or Gi
pants are required. Rashguards, t-shirts, tank tops, Wrestling
shoes, knee pads (non-medal braces), headgear, cups and mouth
pieces are optional.
11.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Attire: A clean solid colored uniform is
required to compete in the BJJ Division. Uniform Jacket must
have a four finger space at cuff and sleeves within 3" of
wrist. Pants must be within 3" of ankles.
12.
Code of Conduct: We will be enforcing a zero tolerance rule on
disrespecting, threatening with physical violence, or verbally
abusing referees or staff at any time before, during or after
the event. If any spectator, coach or competitor threatens or
abuses the referee in any shape or form, they will be escorted
out of the building.
Source: OTM |
YVES
EDWARDS READY FOR ELITE XC TITLE
Yves Edwards will get his chance to finally get a championship
belt around his waist this Saturday night. Edwards, the former
“uncrowned” UFC lightweight champion, has fought some
of the best guys in the business and has beaten a good majority
of them. He’s known for his lethal hands, kicks and knees
as well as his excellent submission prowess. He’ll get the
opportunity to utilize all his skills at EliteXC’s “Return
of the King” on Saturday night when faces defending 160-pound
champion K.J. Noons.
Edwards
took some time to talk with MMAWeekly Radio about his upcoming
preparation for his fight with Noons. “Things are going
good,” he said. “I'm dropping the last few pounds,
staying in shape and keeping my mind focused.”
The
event will be taking place in Hawaii, which can be a gift and
a curse for any athlete. As beautiful as Hawaii is, Edwards doesn’t
want to let the beauty distract him from his main focus. “I
don't want to get distracted,” he explained. “It's
just another fight. I'm going to enjoy it after the fight.”
The
fight with Noons has a lot of potential for Edwards. After all,
this will be the biggest fight up to this point in his career
and he knows it. “It's big. I really appreciate it. I feel
like it put me back on the map, you know? I got a lot of guys
backing me. I have a really strong team. I'm really excited about
this fight.”
With
the CBS deal in EliteXC’s hands, a big win will surely propel
Edwards to the top of list of fighters in the upcoming events
for CBS. However, he is just as happy fighting on Showtime. “Showtime
is a big network. There will be a lot of people watching the
fight. I'm really excited to be fighting on a major network on
cable. There are just so many opportunities right now and I plan
on using them all.”
EliteXC
has established their weight classes differently than many of
the other organizations. While this fight is at lightweight,
the actual weight will be 160 pounds. Not that Edwards would
ever have problem making weight, considering he once weighed
in at a UFC event eating a cheeseburger. Due to the increased
weight, he has tried to become a little bit larger than he was
previously. “I’ve got a little bit bigger because the
weight class is higher. I'm just focused on this fight right
now.”
An
impressive part of Edwards’ game is his versatility. He’s
as dangerous as they come at almost every position. “It's
just like every other fight,” he commented. “I'm not
uncomfortable anywhere in a fight. You can't be one dimensional.
That's the biggest part of me being at American Top Team.”
Some
of his versatility showed in his last fight when he had a highlight
reel knockout over Edson Berto. Berto was working a single leg
takedown when Edwards, seemingly out of nowhere, jumped with
his pivot foot and kneed Berto right on the button to lay him
out. “I've practiced that in the gym,” he laughed.
“There's a lot more where that came from. A whole lot more.”
Noons
is not an opponent to be taken lightly, which is why Edwards
has watched all the fights he could on the champion. “I
watched a lot of fights,” said Edwards. “I see quite
a few places I can capitalize on. The question is, 'will he be
the same guy?' I am going to look for all the openings I've seen
on tape. I saw a few things that may work out well for me.”
Being
that this fight is for the championship belt, Edwards is well-prepared
to go five rounds. “It's always a possibility so you've
got to be prepared for it. I feel comfortable going to that distance.
I want a finish for the fans. But, I'm going to take advantage
of it, if not.”
The
main factor that Edwards will have on Noons will be his experience.
Edwards has been in the cage with some of the best in the business.
Having that experience can only help the challenger. However,
he isn’t expecting that to have any impact on the champion.
“It's a possibility, but it's not something I game plan
on. He's got fight experience and he has the desire to win. That's
what I'm expecting to fight. Anyone less than that, they're going
to get their ass whooped.”
For
Yves Edwards, this is a pivotal fight in his storied career.
A win over Noons will propel him to the exposure and notoriety
that many other EliteXC fighters such as Kimbo Slice, Joey Villasenor
and Gina Carano have experienced.
Edwards
feel he is prepared to defeat Noons and take home another win.
His prediction for the fight is simple: “Just to get in
there and destroy whatever is in front of me. To walk out of
that cage with a W, and my hand held high and a big smile on
my face.”
Source: MMA Weekly |
VITOR
BELFORT ADDED TO UPDATED AFFLICTION CARD
Affliction Entertainment on Wednesday announced the full line-up
for its July 19 “Affliction Banned” event, which will
take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
The
fight card is separated into two live shows produced for broadcast.
The night’s activities will kick off with a one-hour, free
live telecast on FSN (Fox Sports Net) starting at 5 p.m. Pacific
(8 p.mhttp://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/ET), dubbed “Affliction
Live.” Following that is “Affliction Banned,”
consisting of five fights on pay-per-view starting at 6 p.mhttp://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/PT
(9 p.mhttp://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/ET) via iN DEMAND,
TVN, Shaw Communications, Viewers Choice Canada, DirecTV, DISH
Network, Bell ExpressVue and Star Choice in the United States
and Canada for a suggested retail price of $39.95.
Kicking
off the night with “Affliction Live” on FSN is the
U.S. debut of Russian heavyweight Aleksander Emelianenko, brother
of Fedor Emelianenko, against tough Texan brawler Paul Buentello,
of Amarillo, and Brazilian Antonio Rogerio “Minotoro”
Nogueira against veteran Vernon “Tiger” White, fighting
out of Palo Alto, Calif.
Then,
live on pay-per-view, “Affliction Banned” features
the much-anticipated return of the former undisputed Pride heavyweight
champion Fedor Emelianenko, who takes on former two-time Ultimate
Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder Tim Sylvia, fighting
out of Iowa by way of his native Maine, in the main event.
The
co-feature of the night will match former UFC heavyweight titleholder
Andrei Arlovski, fighting out of Chicago by way of Belarus, facing
International Fight League veteran Ben Rothwell of Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The
PPV continues with three more showdowns as Josh Barnett of Seattle,
faces off stateside for the first time in two years in a grudge
match against the only opponent to ever knock him out, Brazilian
Pedro Rizzo; three-time All-American wrestler Mike Whitehead
of Salt Lake City battles Brazilian sensation Renato “Babalu”
Sobral of Costa Mesa, Calif.; and 2000 Olympic Wrestling Silver
Medalist and Oregon House of Representatives candidate Matt Lindland
meets Brazilian Fabio “Negao” Nascimento.
Finally,
for those in attendance at the Honda Center, the off television
swing bouts will feature light-heavyweights Terry Martin of Chicago
vs. Vitor Belfort from Brazil, and Justin Levens of Laguna Niguel,
Calif. vs. unbeaten San Diego prospect Patrick Speight; welterweight
JJ Ambrose of Lakewood, Calif. vs. Mike Pyle of Las Vegas; and
lightweight Savant Young of Lakewood vs. Mark Hominick, representing
Ontario, Canada.
Source: MMA Weekly |
Choi
Hong-Man has successful surgery to remove tumor
Nikkan
Sports published a story today claiming that Choi Hong-Man had
a successful operation to remove the tumor in his pituitary gland
that caused him to be blocked from fighting in California at
the LA Coliseum last year. Hong-Man is expected to be in the
hospital for about a week in recovery and may appear at K-1’s
9/27 World GP event in Seoul. A few days ago, The Korea Times
reported that Choi received an exemption from serving in the
military.
Source: Fight Opinion |
WIUFF
SLAYS JAPANESE 'IRON HEAD' AT SENGOKU 3
Over the past couple of years, Travis “The Diesel”
Wiuff has been one of those fighters who just don’t seem
to catch a break, regardless of what he does inside the arena.
Possessing
solid MMA credentials, which include more than 50 wins in 62
fights, including a six-fight winning streak that captured him
both the International Fighting Organization light-heavyweight
title and YAMMA Pit Fighting heavyweight tournament championship,
Wiuff was not afforded opportunities on the largest stages of
MMA.
Then
the phone rang with an opportunity for him to travel to Japan
for the first time in his career to take on a nationwide legend
in Kazuyuki Fujita at World Victory Road’s Sengoku 3 in
a heavyweight showdown.
Never
one to back down from a fight, Wiuff jumped at the opportunity
and things couldn’t have gone better as he did the unthinkable
and dropped the famed “Iron Head” Japanese fighter
just under 90 seconds into their fight, ushering in a new era
for Wiuff’s career.
Shortly
after landing back in his native Minnesota from a trans-Atlantic
flight, Wiuff spoke to MMAWeekly about his win over Fujita, his
wishes to remain at heavyweight and the suddenly bright prospects
his career has this year.
MMAWeekly:
First off Travis, tell us what it was like to go to Japan for
the first time in your 60-plus fight career.
Travis
Wiuff: Japan is awesome. I’ve wanted to fight over there
since I began fighting. It was a really cool experience. You
get treated much differently and are looked at differently. It’s
really unique with the atmosphere in the arena when you fight,
being that it’s so quiet and you could hear a pin drop.
It was really cool, good experience, and it doesn’t hurt
that I won the fight either.
MMAWeekly:
For the fans that haven’t had a chance to see the fight,
tell us what happened.
Travis
Wiuff: My game plan was to keep it standing. I kind of figured
that (Fujita) thought I wanted to take it to the ground right
away, but I wanted to keep it standing as much as possible. I
wanted to make it a long fight and wear him out, because that’s
one of the advantages I had was my conditioning and cardio.
I
also noticed right away that I was much bigger than he was. I
thought he would be a lot taller and bulkier, but I noticed at
the press conference the day before (the event) that he wasn’t,
so after that I really wanted to use my jab and reach.
He
was throwing some big overhand rights, which I expected, so I
kept my left hand nice and high, and just threw a one-two (combination)
in hope that one would land and close the distance. The jab landed
and knocked him down and dazed him, and I finished him on the
ground with about five hammer fists.
He’s
fought some of the best in the world and nobody’s been really
able to finish him that fast. I’m completely shocked with
the way it went. I expected to win – I went over there with
that purpose – but I was shocked with the way I did it.
MMAWeekly:
It seems like now everything is starting to come together for
your fighting style.
Travis
Wiuff: It feels like it is. With the YAMMA tournament and now
this, I know if I want to keep the fight standing, I can make
it happen. I’m continuing to work on my boxing and kickboxing,
and I think it’s coming together. It seems like my boxing
takes baby steps forward, but it’s getting better and now
I’m starting to feel a lot more comfortable.
MMAWeekly:
I think this also shows that unequivocally you should stay at
heavyweight. Is that what you think as well?
Travis
Wiuff: Yeah, I definitely think that. I feel so much more comfortable
at heavyweight. My advantages are so much more distinct at heavyweight.
My strength, size, athleticism for a heavyweight stand out, or
are equivalent with anyone at the weight.
I
definitely think I need to get a little bit bigger, a little
bit stronger. Right now I walk around at about 235 (pounds),
so I’d like to put on about ten more pounds of strength
and see what kind of results I can really get at heavyweight.
MMAWeekly:
With about six months left in the year, where would you like
to see yourself by the end of 2008?
Travis
Wiuff: I just want to head back over to Japan. I hated the trip
over there, the long flight, but once I got over there I felt
really good and it was an awesome experience there. I definitely
plan for two fights in Sengoku later in the year, and that’s
my goal.
I’ve
been training hard, and have had my ups and downs the past couple
of years, but have always had my eye on the goal, regardless
how far down the road it was. It’s good to know that all
this hard work is paying off.
MMAWeekly:
Thanks for your time Travis. Is there anything you want to say
as we head out?
Travis
Wiuff: I’ve got to thank Warrior Wear, they’ve always
been really great to me; and Monte Cox – I have the best
manager in the world. Things are only going to get better for
me, so I hope everyone keeps on the bandwagon, because they’re
only going to get more exciting from here.
Source: MMA Weekly |
Quote
of the Day
“The
love we give away is the only love we keep.”
Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American Philosopher and Writer
|
EliteXC
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June 14, 2008
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PJ Dean
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Rafael Feijao (Brazil) vs. Wayne Cole (Oklahoma City, OK) at
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|
Sizzling
performers shake up Top 10
A
trio of spectacular performances led to a bit of a shakeup in
the latest rankings.
B.J.
Penn, Urijah Faber and Miguel Angel Torres put on three of 2008’s
most impressive displays of mixed martial arts skill in their
recent victories, enabling all three to move up two places in
the poll.
Penn
defended his UFC lightweight championship with a convincing win
over former champion Sean Sherk on May 24. Penn’s standup
game was so impressive in victory that Sherk, a wrestler, was
never able to take the Hawaiian off his feet over the course
of three rounds. As a result, Penn nudged ahead of Fedor Emelianenko
and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson for the third spot in
the poll.
Faber,
the WEC featherweight kingpin, came through under the biggest
spotlight of his career. In front of a near-sellout hometown
crowd at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, Faber dazzled by taking
it to one of the best lighter-weight strikers in MMA history
– former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver – and
winning a unanimous decision after 25 minutes of grueling action.
Faber moved from No. 7 to No. 5 with the victory.
ADVERTISEMENT
And
Torres, who has gotten the least amount of publicity of the three,
all but sealed his unofficial title of Breakout MMA Fighter of
2008 with his stellar TKO win over tough Yoshiro Maeda. The WEC
bantamweight champ jumped to No. 8 with the victory.
As
a result of all the movement, both Fedor Emelianenko and Quinton
“Rampage” Jackson fell. Fedor dropped to No. 6 and
Jackson to No. 4. That has more to do with their recent inactivity
than it is an indictment of their skills. Both return to action
in July.
For
info on the Y! Sports MMA Top 10 panel, go here.
10.
Dan Henderson
Points: 13
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Light heavyweight/middleweight
Hometown: Victorville, Calif.
Record: 22-8 (lost past two)
Last month’s ranking: 9
Most recent result: lost to Anderson Silva, R2 submission, March
1
Analysis: Still nothing concrete on Henderson’s agenda.
But then, “Hollywood” has earned the right to take
some time off after facing Wanderlei Silva, Quinton Jackson and
Anderson Silva in consecutive fights.
9.
Randy Couture
Points: 32
Affiliation:Under contract to UFC
Weight class: Heavyweight
Hometown: Gresham, Ore.
Record: 16-8 (won past two)
Last month’s ranking: 8
Most recent results: def. Gabriel Gonzaga, Round 3 TKO, Aug.
25
Analysis: Nothing new in Couture’s ongoing legal battle
with the UFC. The Y! poll has a one-year inactivity clause; if
Couture doesn’t fight by Aug. 25, he’ll lose eligibility
until he fights next.
8.
Miguel Angel Torres
Points: 54
Affiliation: WEC
Weight class: Bantamweight (WEC bantamweight champion)
Hometown: E. Chicago, Ind.
Record: 34-1 (won past 15)
Last month’s ranking: 10
Most recent result: def. Yoshiro Maeda, TKO R3, June 1
Analysis: If Torres was a light heavyweight, he would have long
since been ranked in the top 5. Torres’ breakthrough has
been one of the great MMA stories of 2008, a tale of a world-class
fighter getting his long-overdue respect. Torres’ win over
Maeda was one of the most complete displays of MMA skills seen
in quite some time; as a result, he more than doubled his points
total from last month.
7.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Points: 68
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Heavyweight (UFC interim heavyweight champion)
Hometown: Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil
Record: 31-4-1 (won past 3)
Last month’s ranking: 6
Recent results: def. Tim Sylvia, R3 submission, Feb. 2
Analysis: Make no mistake about it, Nogueira is still one of
the world’s great heavyweights, but he’s presiding
over what has once again become the UFC’s weakest division.
Up and comers like Shane Carwin and Brock Lesnar have the potential
to reinforce the 265-lb. class down the road, but in the interim,
the loss of former champs Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski make
for a sharp decline underneath Big Nog.
6.
Fedor Emelianenko
Points: 87
Affiliation: Free agent
Weight class: Heavyweight
Hometown: Stary Oskol, Russia
Record: 27-1 (1 no-contest; won past eight)
Last month’s ranking: 4
Most recent result: def. Hong Man-Choi, R1 submission, Dec. 31.
Analysis: A quick reminder to Fedor’s fans before they fire
off their email rants: This is a poll of the best fighters in
June 2008. Not 2004, 2005 or 2006. Fedor has slid down the rankings
because of a lack of activity against top-notch competition.
He has a chance to show he belongs rated higher next month when
he fights two-time former UFC champion Tim Sylvia in Anaheim,
Calif. It will be Fedor’s first real test against a heavyweight
in 18 months.
5.
Urijah Faber
Points: 91
Affiliation: WEC
Weight class: Featherweight (WEC featherweight champion)
Hometown: Sacramento, Calif.
Record: 21-1 (won past 13)
Last month’s ranking: 7
2007 results: def. Jens Pulver, unanimous decision, June 1
Analysis: There’s a reason why the WEC and the Versus network
have hitched their hype machine to “The California Kid.”
Fans are catching on to the fact that when Faber competes, they’re
going to be treated to a fighter who can submit Brazilian jiu-jitsu
black belts, bang with punchers and come up with unique escapes
for precarious situations.
4.
Quinton Jackson
Points: 98
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Light heavyweight (UFC lt. heavyweight champion)
Hometown: Memphis, Tenn.
Record: 28-6 (won past four)
Last month’s ranking: 3
Most recent result: def. Dan Henderson, unanimous decision, Sept.
8
Analysis: “Rampage” has been rated as high as No. 2,
but has fallen a bit mainly due to inactivity. Jackson can make
his case on July 5 with an impressive showing against the underrated
Forrest Griffin.
3.
B.J. Penn
Points: 119 (one first-place vote)
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Lightweight (UFC lightweight champion)
Hometown: Hilo, Hawaii
Record: 13-4-1 (won past three)
Last month’s ranking: 5
Most recent result: def. Sean Sherk, R3 TKO, May 24
Analysis: Penn answered all the questions with his thorough beatdown
of Sherk. He answered the questions about his conditioning, as
he looked just as strong at the end of the third round as he
did at the start of the fight. And by keeping the fight standing,
Penn proved he has what it takes to beat an elite opponent with
his standup. The greatness long predicted by Penn’s fans
is finally coming to fruition.
2.
Georges St. Pierre
Points: 139 (two first-place votes)
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Welterweight (UFC welterweight champion)
Hometown: Saint-Isidore, Quebec
Record: 16-2 (won past three)
Last month’s ranking: 2
Most recent result: def. Matt Serra, R2 TKO, April 19
Analysis: GSP defends the welterweight title against Jon Fitch
in August, but most of the chatter in the business is about opponents
in other weight classes. Fans have clamored for a fight with
world No. 1 Anderson Silva. But now lightweight champ Penn wants
another crack at St. Pierre. Penn lost to GSP at welterweight
back at UFC 58. If St. Pierre takes care of business, it would
seem one match or the other needs to happen.
1.
Anderson Silva
Points: 153 (13 first-place votes)
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Middleweight (UFC middleweight champion)
Hometown: Curitiba, Brazil
Record: 21-4 (won past seven)
Last month’s ranking: 1
Most recent result: def. Dan Henderson, R2 submission, March
1
Analysis: Still no word on the next opponent for Silva. “The
Spider” was reportedly at UFC 84 in Las Vegas, attempting
in vain to pitch a boxing match against Roy Jones Jr. With UFC’s
big cards booked through the summer, the company’s September
debut in Atlanta would seem a natural spot for Silva’s next
fight.
More
• Votes for others: Shinya Aoki 9; Lyoto Machida 5; Kid
Yamamoto, Wanderlei Silva 2; Mauricio Rua, Jon Fitch, Chuck Liddell
1.
• Upcoming matches for top-10 fighters: No. 4 Quinton “Rampage”
Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin, July 5; No. 6 Fedor Emelianenko
vs. Tim Sylvia, July 19.
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
Time
for Hughes to call it a career
LONDON
– After Georges St. Pierre thrashed him about like he was
a beginner and then submitted him at UFC 79, Matt Hughes admitted
that thoughts of retirement had crossed his mind.
At
the post-fight news conference in Las Vegas that night, Hughes
vowed that he would retire before he’d become anyone’s
highlight reel.
But
on Saturday, in the main event of UFC 85 at the O2 Arena, Hughes
became someone’s highlight reel yet again.
This
time, Hughes became a notch on the belt of Thiago Alves, who
knocked Hughes out with a perfect left knee in the second round.
As
good as the up-and-coming Alves looked – and he looked plenty
good – it was difficult not to wonder whether he’d
have been nearly as successful a few years earlier.
Time,
and the changing face of mixed martial arts, has clearly caught
up to Hughes. He’s had two reigns as UFC’s welterweight
champion, has won nine title fights and had an amazing run of
19 wins in 20 fights, which included victories over luminaries
such as B.J. Penn, St. Pierre and Royce Gracie.
He’s
been a classy representative of the sport, which made watching
him get thrashed about like a sparring partner Saturday all the
more difficult to take. He clearly wants a fight with his bitter
rival, Matt Serra, a fight UFC president Dana White said he’d
make if Hughes wants it.
And
while there was a time when most mixed martial arts experts thought
Hughes would steamroll Serra, that time is long past. Hughes
has now lost three of his last four and has been dominated in
each of the losses.
Though
the bad blood between the two, and Serra’s ability to chatter,
would help sell the fight, it would be another of the WWE-type
promotions that the sport is better off without. The UFC appeared
to leave that behind when it was done with the Ken Shamrock-Tito
Ortiz trilogy, and it has no need to go back to such events.
The athletes are too good and the sport has evolved too much
for it to rely on “feuds” to sell tickets.
And
given that there has to be considered at least a decent possibility
that Serra could win the fight, White needs to consider the fact
that he wouldn’t be doing Hughes any favors by letting him
get into the cage and get beaten up again. Certainly, he doesn’t
need to be in with young, strong and athletic men like St. Pierre
and Alves any more.
Hughes
was asked how he felt seeing such superb athletes like St. Pierre
and Alves develop into stars and he didn’t mince any words.
“I
don’t like it,” Hughes said, drawing chuckles from
the crowd. “Ask me again and I’ll say it a thousand
times. I don’t like it.”
Five
years ago, he would have been drooling for such competition and
he would have overpowered it on most nights.
But
while the 34-year-old Hughes said he felt good even as he walked
to the cage, he lacks the quick, explosive shot that he had as
a younger man. Hughes went for a shot early, but Alves easily
saw it coming and stuffed it.
Hughes
was handled by Alves much like Ortiz was handled by Lyoto Machida
two weeks earlier at UFC 84. At an impromptu question-and-answer
session with a handful of reporters after Friday’s weigh-in,
White was talking about how Ortiz didn’t land a punch or
a kick and didn’t get a takedown against Machida.
Hughes
wasn’t much better against Alves. And that bout was essentially
played out the way the St. Pierre fight was in December.
For
his part, Alves is moving close to a shot at the welterweight
title, though he has to prove he can make the 170-pound weight
limit.
He
needed a diuretic to help him in a 2006 fight, which cost him
an eight-month suspension imposed by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
He barely made weight for his November win over Chris Lytle,
needing to strip naked to hit 171. Alves said he sprained his
right ankle about 10 days ago, which prevented him from working
out for three days. That, Alves said, resulted in him weighing
four pounds over the 170-pound limit at Friday’s weigh-in.
An
engaging sort who once had a job as a dance escort for women
in South Florida, Alves said all the right things at the post-fight
news conference. He said he has long been a fan of mixed martial
arts and especially enjoyed watching Hughes.
“This
means everything to me,” he said of a win over Hughes. “I
remember watching Matt Hughes slamming people through the floor.
I’m really, really happy.”
The
problem that White must wrestle with now is that pretty much
everyone beats him. And while the fighter almost always believes
he has one more bout left – and Hughes desperately wants
to tear into Serra to settle their long-standing differences
– there comes a time when the fighter needs to be protected
from himself.
That
time has come for Hughes, and White needs to forget the money
a potential Hughes-Serra bout may generate and do what is best
for the man.
That
means telling him no more fights.
In
the ring, Hughes said he still wanted the Serra fight, but he
wouldn’t flatly demand it at the post-fight news conference.
“Any
questions about my future, I think those are best directed toward
Dana,” Hughes said. “Ask him.”
White
said he would “absolutely” make that fight. But to
say that ignores what unfolded in front of him not only on Saturday,
but on Dec. 29 as well as Nov. 18, 2006.
There’s
no reason for Hughes to press forward. He’s a surefire Hall
of Famer and, most importantly, he still has his health and his
faculties.
He
needs to walk away and let the great young fighters in the business
try to equal his records.
The
time has come for Matt Hughes to retire.
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
MMA
notes: WEC, Sengoku fallout
The
success of the May 31 Elite XC on CBS card was important for
the growth of mixed martial arts. But the card held the following
night was just as important.
The
June 1 Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver match was both a ratings
and artistic success.
The
1.44 rating and 1.54 million viewers tripled the usual audience
WEC live events had done on Versus and doubled the previous record
set Dec. 12 when Faber beat Jeff Curran and Pulver beat Cub Swanson
to set up the match.
The
rating even beat WEC owner Zuffa LLC’s projections for the
fight by 44 percent.
The
match was well-promoted, and what is significant is that it did
these numbers with 145-pound headliners and without any type
of a trash-talking grudge match build-up.
In
many ways, the match was the epitome of what many hardcore fans
wish the sport to be: respectful fighters with high skill levels
going at it largely to determine the best in the world in their
weight class.
The
five-round battle of speed and mental toughness was among the
year’s best fights, and unlike so many other recent fights,
there was no dispute or controversy when it was over. Faber won
a solid decision to strengthen his claim to be the best in the
world in his weight class.
The
unfortunate reality is, more often than not, simply being the
best at what you do is not what draws ratings. But the show’s
success answered a key question about the ability of smaller
fighters to put up large numbers.
WEC
had been an artistic success for the past year but was on a low-
rated channel and held most events in the 1,000-seat Joint at
the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. It’s been tough to gauge
how viable the WEC could be as a major promotion.
Even
with a strong hype special on Versus and a major advertising
and promotional campaign, the fight was still barely mentioned
in all the TV and newspaper coverage about the Kimbo Slice-led
CBS show.
The
WEC right now has three major standout characters, all champions,
in Faber, bantamweight champion Miguel Torres and light heavyweight
champion Brain Stann. Faber and Torres are likely the best in
North America in their respective weight classes. Stann is clearly
nowhere near the best light heavyweight in the world, but his
background as a war hero enables him to get a level of recognition
most fighters can’t, and thus far he’s won every fight
with quick knockouts and nobody has yet to test him.
WEC,
which had previously been a small-scale success putting on shows
in small California venues, was purchased by Zuffa largely to
make a television deal with Versus. The UFC’s exclusive
contract with Spike wouldn’t allow them to put anything
UFC branded on a rival cable station.
The
idea was to build the promotion around 135- and 145-pound fighters
who were too small for UFC, which doesn’t use anyone less
than 155 pounds.
But
now, new questions have to be asked.
Faber
earned $51,500 for headlining the highest-rated cable MMA broadcast
so far this year of any kind and drawing the largest crowd for
an MMA show in North American history not promoted by UFC or
Strikeforce. That’s including a $7,500 bonus for his match.
Torres,
who got a similar best match bonus, earned $35,500 as bantamweight
champion. There may have been other bonuses thrown in, as Faber
had been bonused in the past for his promotional work in building
previous shows that weren’t nearly as successful.
But
those figures are a far cry from what a UFC champion would earn.
It’s far less than what many fighters who don’t have
a fraction of their talent make. When it comes to what Faber
showed, it’s less than a ton of fighters who don’t
have a fraction of his drawing power. And the drawing power of
both men has not even scratched its full potential.
But
with Faber (age 29), and Torres (27) both in their primes, questions
have to be asked about how to best utilize both in the future,
both for their own careers and for the company. You don’t
want their prime years slipping away and have people look back
and say it’s a shame only the hardcore fans got to appreciate
them at their best, or how they could have been mainstream superstars
if they only had been exposed to more fans.
The
potential is there to match the two of them up, and it could
do numbers in line with what Sunday’s show did, and figures
to be one of the best fights of the year. But the potential would
be a lot larger if more people were exposed to both of them.
UFC
president Dana White has, in the past, talked of the possibility
of putting Faber on a UFC pay-per-view show to give him exposure,
although it doesn’t appear the discussions have ever gotten
that serious. There are a lot of complications to work through,
including the fact Versus and Spike are rival networks, both
targeting young men.
Would
Spike want to use its television to promote a star attraction
of a rival network? There has been talk of doing WEC vs. UFC
PPV events down the line, but that doesn’t really fit here.
Sure, Faber could move up to 155 and face a B.J. Penn, but there
should be enough prominence in being world champion in your own
weight class to avoid facing larger men. Faber really could fight
at 135 and wrestled in college lighter than that. He’s at
145 simply because that weight class was established first and
he became the face of it. Torres I can’t even see being
considered for matches with UFC fighters.
There
is also the argument that if once people get to be superstars
in WEC, they are moved to UFC, it establishes WEC as a minor
league feeder company, which Versus wouldn’t want. Perhaps
the best idea is for Faber and Torres, or whomever the champions
are in those weight classes, to defend their titles once per
year on a UFC pay-per-view show. In doing so, they’ll be
pushed in front of a new audience that will know who they are,
and be more apt to then follow them for their other two or three
fights on Versus.
The
Zuffa organization runs so many shows and has a limited number
of star attractions. Faber has just broken into that echelon
as a legitimate star attraction, but he’s still nowhere
near the level he could be. Torres is not yet at that level as
an attraction but has the potential to get there.
UFC
has been desperate for years for a Latino superstar and it has
a legitimate world champion to market to a largely untapped audience.
Torres’e spirited fighting style fits in with the type of
fighter the culture embraces, and, stylistically, he may be the
company’s most exciting fighter. His stand-up game never
stops, and his ground game is amazing. Round two of his win over
Yoshiro Maeda was one of the best rounds in recent MMA history.
But right now, Torres is still largely a secret.
In
a star-driven sport, that’s the worst thing for someone
with that level of talent to be.
Sengoku
results
Former
Olympic wrestling gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida stopped former
UFC and world kickboxing heavyweight champion Maurice Smith in
2:33 of the first round in the main event with a neck crank during
Sunday’s Sengoku show in Saitama, Japan.
Sengoku
is one of two promotions, the other being Dream, which has emerged
on the Japanese scene since the collapse of the PRIDE Fighting
Championship. Yoshida, a national hero and mainstream celebrity
in Japan, was probably the biggest drawing card in PRIDE’s
last years of the promotion. But at 38, he’s long past his
prime, so Smith, 46, a name known in Japan for two decades, was
brought in as he attempted to rebound after three straight losses.
Travis
Wiuff, coming off winning the YAMMA heavyweight tournament April
11, knocked out Kazuyuki Fujita in a big surprise since Fujita,
nicknamed “Iron Head,” is noted for his ability to
take incredible punishment. It appeared to be a weak jab that
floored Fujita, and a few hammer fists on the ground put him
out.
Kazuo
Misaki, who is expected to debut with Strikeforce this summer,
took a three-round decision over former WEC competitor Logan
Clark, while former Bodog champion Nick Thompson, the only man
ever to beat Eddie Alvarez, used a Kimura to get a second-round
submission over Michael Costa.
The
promotion announced its next show Aug. 24 with an eight-man lightweight
tournament featuring Takanori Gomi and Duane “Bang”
Ludwig.
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
UFC
champ BJ Penn humbled by fans
KANEOHE
(KHNL) - Hawaii's fighting champ comes to Honolulu in a hero's
welcome. Two weeks after a big win in Las Vegas, mixed martial
artist BJ Penn meets hundreds of his fans.
It
was a mad house. The Hilo native admits even he doesn't realize
how bright his star is shining right now.
Hundreds
of fans line up for hours.
"Five
hours," said Cheven Calma. He and his family were second
in line.
"About
3 and a half hours," said Dustin Rife, who was 8th in line.
"Here
today cause I wanted to see our favorite fighter BJ Penn,"
said Calma.
Hilo's
BJ Penn, the Prodigy, is humbled by the turnout.
"It's
always amazing when you get a great crowd out," he said.
"I never know how it is cause I'm in Hilo all the time,
so when i come out to the other islands, it's like that's right,
fighting, you realize how big it is."
And
so is he.
The
UFC lightweight champ solidified his status as one of -- if not
-- the best pound for pound fighter in the world after beating
Sean Sherk two weeks ago.
But
it's what he does outside the ring that makes him unique.
"He's
pretty laid back," said Alicia Rife. "He's cool. He
likes to meet his fans, so it's cool to know he's grateful for
the fans he has."
Humble,
mellow, and always wants to represent Hawaii, and its people.
"It's
pretty cool cause hardly anybody notice us cause we're a small
island," said Calma.
"Definitely,
it's good to have these people out, that they support me, they
believe in me," said Penn. "It's easier for you to
do it yourself. You know, when you're out there, so it's important
man."
Penn
says he already knows who he's fighting next, but he isn't saying
yet.
But
he promises it will be a good one.
Source: KHNL
|
Matt
Hughes by the numbers and the greatest UFC fighters ever
After
his third loss in 4 fights the end is near for UFC legend Matt
Hughes. Instead of riffing on how Hughes is washed up and how
the game has passed him by I thought I would take some time to
reflect on what he has accomplished in the UFC and share with
you Matt Hughes by the numbers.
Hughes
is unquestionably one of the greatest fighters to ever step into
the octagon. He holds notable wins over BJ Penn, Georges St.
Pierre, Frank Trigg (twice), Royce Gracie, Hayato Sakurai, Carlos
Newton and Sean Sherk. He is the 9 time world champion and the
most decorated welterweight in UFC history.
The
numbers...
Most
wins in UFC title bouts
Rank
Fighter-W-L-D
1
Matt Hughes - 9-3-0
1 Randy Couture - 9-5-0
3 Tito Ortiz - 6-2-0
4 Frank Shamrock - 5-0-0
4 Pat Miletich - 5-1-0
4 Chuck Liddell - 5-2-0
4 Tim Sylvia - 5-3-0
Most
consecutive UFC title defenses
Rank
Fighter-Streak-Timeframe
1
Matt Hughes - 5 - 2002-2003
1 Tito Ortiz - 5 - 2000-2002
3 Frank Shamrock - 4 - 1998-1999
3 Pat Miletich - 4 - 1999-2000
3 Chuck Liddell - 4 - 2005-2006
6 Anderson Silva - 3 - 2007-2008 (active)
Most
UFC title bouts
Rank
Fighter-Title Bouts-Record (W-L-D)
1
Randy Couture - 14 - 9-5-0
2 Matt Hughes - 12 - 9-3-0
3 Tim Sylvia - 9 - 5-4-0
3 Tito Ortiz - 9 - 6-3-0
5 Chuck Liddell - 7 - 5-2-0
Most
wins in UFC bouts
Rank
Fighter - W-L-D
1
Chuck Liddell - 16-4-0
2 Matt Hughes - 15-5-0
3 Tito Ortiz - 14-6-1
4 Randy Couture - 13-5- 0
5 Royce Gracie - 11-2-0
5 Evan Tanner - 11-5-0
Most
UFC bouts
Rank
Fighter - Bouts - Record (W-L-D)
1
Tito Ortiz - 21 - 14-6-1
2 Chuck Liddell - 20 - 16-4-0
2 Matt Hughes - 20 - 15-5-0
4 Randy Couture - 18 - 13-5-0
4 Tank Abbott - 18 - 8-10-0
Most
consecutive wins in UFC bouts
Rank
Fighter - Streak -Timeframe
1
Royce Gracie - 8 - 1993-1994
1 Jon Fitch - 8 - 2005-2008 (active)
3 Chuck Liddell - 7 (x2) - 1999-2002, 2004-2006
3 Rich Franklin - 7 - 2003-2006
3 Randy Couture - 7 - 1997-2002
3 Pat Miletich - 7 - 1998-2000
7 Matt Hughes - 6 (x2) -2001-2003, 2004-2006
Hughes
is a sure fire Hall of Famer, but after looking at what he has
accomplished I want to know where you rank him in comparison
to the other top fighters in UFC history. Here's my list of top
5 fighters in UFC history, what's yours?
Chron.com's
top 5 Fighters in UFC History
1
Randy Couture
2 Royce Gracie
3 Matt Hughes
4 Chuck Liddell
5 Tito Ortiz
One
more question...
After
seeing Hughes get thrashed by GSP and Alves do you think he should
fight again or call it a career? He wants to settle his grudge
match with Matt Serra and Dana White said he'll give it to him,
but come on, does he really need it? And if he does fight Serra
does he have enough in the tank to secure 1 more victory?
Source: Brawl Sports |
Fighters'
Club TV Tonight!
Channel 52, Tuesdays
at 7:00 PM
FCTV episode
58 will run in our normal timeslot of 7pm on Oceanic Channel
52 Olelo Oahu Tuesday nights.
Episode
59 features:
Highlights
from the Grapple Fest
Comments,
Questions, and Suggestions to: fctv@onzuka.com
|
Fighters'
Club Radio Mondays!
FIGHTERS
CLUB RADIO
MONDAY MAY 19
9AM-10AM
RIGHT AFTER LEAHEY & LEAHEY
AM
1500 RADIO
"THE TEAM, HAWAII'S SPORTING NEWS"
FAN
LINE: 296-1500
THANKS
TO OUR SPONSORS:
- OTM "ON THE MAT" ON BERETANIA
- GLACEAU VITAMIN ENERGY
- EN FUEGO GRILL AND POKE
- MUSCLE MILK
- BRIT'S AUTO BODY
|
Undisputed
UFC Middleweight Champion
Anderson "The Spider" Silva Seminar
|
Pride
Grand Prix Champion
Mauricio "Shogun" Rua Seminar
Ninja
& Shogun Rua
Tropic
Lightning Tae Kwon Do
2nd Floor, Waipahu
Sunday, June 15, 2008
5-7PM
Cost: $60
To
reserve your spot, please call:
Alden (Submit One) 371-1589
Wyman 216-4852
|
Pacific
Submission Grappling Championships
June 27-30, 2008
Blaisdell Exhibition Hall
Open to all Men, Women and Kids 5-14 & Juniors 15-17 years
old.
Friday, Saturday & Sunday June 27-29, 2008
Location:
Neil Blaisdell Exhibition Center
Honolulu, HI
Fees:
*(Must Pre-Register on or before June 25th at www.grapplingtournaments.com or by mail for these
prices)
*Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships – Saturday June 28th
- Men, Women & Juniors - $50
*No Gi Submission Grappling – Sunday June 29th - Men, Women
& Juniors - $50
**BOTH events for ONLY $75**
*1 day Spectator ticket: $10 (must purchase online or $20 a day)
2 day spectator ticket: $15 (must purchase online or $20 a day)
Pre-Registration
Enrollment (3 options):
1) Mail a signed Registration Form along with a money order or
check made payable to:
GTA Tournaments - Mail to: 17424 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach,
CA 92647 Note: postmarked no later than Monday June 23rd)
2)
Register online: grapplingtournaments.com (Note: Online registration
must be completed by Wednesday June 25th) or at OTM Fight Shop
(Pre-Registration must be completed by Wednesday June 25th)
3)
Night before or day of Registration: $20 late fee will apply
Show up to either weigh-in time to register.
Weigh-Ins
(2 options):
Either OTM Fight Shop or Tournament Location. Note: There will
be no weight allowance. If an athlete is within 3 pounds of their
weigh class they will have until an hour and a half before their
scheduled division to make weight.
Option
1: Day before Weigh-ins will beFriday, June 27th, 2008 between
12pm - 6pmat OTM Fight Shop:
1255 S. Beretania St. Honolulu, HI 92647 (808) 591-6620
Option
2: Day of Weigh-ins you can also weigh-in the day you compete
1 hour 30 minutes before your scheduled cut off time at the tournament
location. Complete information is available at grapplingtournaments.com
For
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and/or No-Gi Submission Grappling Divisions
Morning of the event before your divisions scheduled deadline
time at the tournament location. See schedule below for deadline
times. (Anyone arriving after deadline will be penalized an additional
$20 if the division has not started yet.)
Note: This is the earliest a division will be called. It does
not necessarily reflect the actual fight time.
Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu Divisions run on Saturday
*(Must be weighed in and ready to compete by listed weigh-in
times)*
Kids all divisions (5-10 & 11-14): Weigh in before 9am -
Compete at 10am
Juniors all divisions (15-17): Weigh in before 10:00am - Compete
at 11:30am
White Belt Executive & Masters: Weigh-in before 9am - Compete
at 10am
White Belt Adult: Weigh-in before 9am. Compete at 11am
Blue Belt Executives & Masters: Weigh-in before 11am. Compete
at 1pm
Blue Belt Adult: Weigh-in before 11am. Compete at 2 pm
Women all divisions: Weigh-in before 1 pm. Compete at 3 pm
Purple Belt Executive & Masters: Weigh-in before 2 pm. Compete
at 4 pm
Purple Belt Adult: Weigh-in before 2 pm. Compete at 4 pm
Brown & Black Belt: Weigh-in before 2 pm. Compete at 4:30
pm
Schedule
For No-Gi Submission Grappling Divisions on Sunday:
Kids all divisions (5-10 & 11-14): Weigh in before 9am -
Compete at 10am
Juniors all divisions (15-17): Weigh in before 9:30am - Compete
at 11:30am
Beginner Executive & Masters: Weigh-in before 9am - Compete
at 10am
Beginner Adult: Weigh-in before 9:30 am - Compete at 11:30am
Advanced Executives & Masters: Weigh-in before 11:00am -
Compete at 1:30pm
Advanced Adult: Weigh-in before 11:30am - Compete at 2pm
Women all divisions: Weigh-in before 1pm - Compete at 2:30pm
Intermediate Executives and Masters: Weigh-in before 1pm - Compete
at 3pm
Intermediate Adult: Weigh-in before 1:30pm - Compete at 3:30pm
Coaches:
Coaches will be required to check-in online or by phone and provide
a list of registered students to receive credentials. STRICTLY
ENFORCED! Email director@grapplingtournaments.com or call (714) 847-6787
for credentials.
Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu Championship Division & Rules • Saturday June
28th
BJJ
Skill Levels:
Men
& Women: White Belt, Blue Belt, Purple Belt, Brown Belt &
Black Belt
Kids
(8-14) & Juniors (15-17 years): White, Yellow, Orange &
Green Belt
Length
of BJJ Matches:
White:
5 minutes
Blue:
6 minutes
Purple:
7 minutes
Brown:
8 minutes
Black:
10 Minutes
Juniors:
4 minutes
Executive
(30-39) / Masters (40+): White/Blue belts 4 minutes • Purple/Brown
belts 6min • Black belts 7 minutes
Male
Adult BJJ Weight Classes: (Note: Weigh-in WITHOUT uniform)
Rooster:
121lbs. and below
Super
Feather: 122-134 lbs.
Feather:
135-147 lbs.
Light:
148-160 lbs.
Middle:
161-174 lbs.
Light-Heavy:
174-187 lbs.
Heavy:
188-202 lbs.
Super-Heavy:
203-221 lbs.
Unlimited:
221 lbs. and over
Juniors
(13-17) BJJ Weight Classes:
Lightweight:
114.9 lbs. and below
Welterweight:
115-129.9 lbs.
Middleweight:
130-149.9 lbs.
Cruiserweight:
150-169.9 lbs.
Heavyweight:
170 lbs. and over
Women's
BJJ Weight Classes:
Class
A: 119.9 lbs and below
Class
B: 120-134.9 lbs.
Class
C: 135-149.9 lbs.
Class
D: 150 lbs. and over
Women's
Absolute: Open Weight, Open Skill
Executive
& Masters BJJ Weight Classes:
Lightweight:
159.9 lbs and below
Middleweight:
160-179.9 lbs.
Cruiserweight:
180-199.9 lbs.
Heavyweight:
200 lbs. and over
BJJ
Point System:
Takedown:
2 points
Knee
on Belly: 2 points
Sweep
or Reversal w/ legs: 2 points
Passing
Opponent's Guard: 3 points
Mounted
Position: 4 points
Back
Control w/ Hooks: 4 points
(All
positions must be held for 3 full seconds)
BJJ
Illegal Techniques:
White
Belt, Blue belt, Executives and Masters: No Leg Locks EXCEPT
Straight Ankle Lock. No Neck or Cervical Cranks, Wrist Locks,
Slamming or Slicers.
Purple
- Black: No Twisting Leg locks EXCEPT Inside Toe Hold, No Neck
or Cervical Cranks or Slamming.
Submission
Grappling Divisions & Rules • Sunday June 29th
Skill
Levels:
Beginner:
Under 2 years
Intermediate:
2 years to 4 years
Advanced:
More than 4 years
Kids
& Juniors: Beginner = Less than 18 months • Advanced
= 18 months or greater
Women:
Beginner = Less than 18 months • Advanced = 18 months or
greater
Executive:
30-39 years – Beginner = Less than 18 months • Advanced
= 18 months or greater
Masters:
Over 40 years - Beginner = Less than 18 months • Advanced
= 18 months or greater
Length
of No-Gi Matches:
Beginner:
4 minutes
Intermediate:
5 minutes
Advanced:
6 minutes
Kids
& Juniors: 4 minutes
Women:
Beginner = 4 minutes • Advanced = 6 minutes
Executive/Masters:
Beginner = 4 minutes • Advanced = 5 minutes
Men's
No-Gi Weight Classes:
Flyweight:
139.9 lbs. and below
Featherweight:
140-149.9 lbs.
Lightweight:
150-159.9 lbs.
Welterweight:
160-169.9 lbs.
Middleweight:
170-179.9 lbs.
Cruiserweight:
180-189.9 lbs.
Light-Heavyweight:
190-199.9 lbs.
Heavyweight:
200-209.9 lbs.
Superweight:
210 lbs. and over
Children’s
No-Gi Weight Classes:
*Rough
guideline. Youth will be matched as closely as possible.*
Bantamweight:
50 lbs. and below
Flyweight:
50-59.9 lbs.
Featherweight:
60-69.9 lbs.
Lightweight:
70-79.9 lbs.
Welterweight:
80-94.9 lbs.
Middleweight:
94-109.9 lbs.
Cruiserweight:
110-124.9 lbs.
Heavyweight:
124 lbs. and over
Kids
& Juniors No-Gi Weight Classes:
Lightweight:
114.9 lbs. and below
Welterweight:
115-129.9 lbs.
Middleweight:
130-149.9 lbs.
Cruiserweight:
150-169.9 lbs.
Heavyweight:
170 lbs. and over
Women's
No-Gi Weight Classes:
Class
A: 119.9 lbs and below
Class
B: 120-134.9 lbs.
Class
C: 135-149.9 lbs.
Class
D: 150 lbs. and over
Women's
Absolute: Open Weight, Open Skill
Executive
& Masters No-Gi Weight Classes:
Lightweight:
159.9 lbs and below
Middleweight:
160-179.9 lbs.
Cruiserweight:
180-199.9 lbs.
Heavyweight:
200 lbs. and over
No-Gi
Point System:
Takedown
landing in Half or Full Guard: 2 points
Takedown
to Side Control or Mount: 3 points
Sweep
or Reversal w/ legs: 2 points
Passing
Opponent's Guard: 3 points
Mounted
Position: 4 points
Back
Control w/ Hooks: 4 points
(All
positions must be held for minimum 3 seconds)
No-Gi
Illegal Techniques:
Beginner,
Novice, Executive & Masters Divisions: No Leg Locks EXCEPT
Straight Ankle Lock. No Neck or Cervical Cranks, Wrist Locks,
Slamming or Slicers.
Intermediate:
No Twisting Leg locks EXCEPT Inside Toe Hold, No Neck or Cervical
Cranks, Wrist Locks, Slamming or Slicers.
Advanced:
No Slamming
Detailed
Rules:
The
object of the competition is to control and submit your opponent.
Ways
to win:
1)
Causing your opponent to physically or verbally tapout or quit
by using a technique within the guidelines of the rules in each
set division. (All competitors must be aware of dangerous techniques
and know how to tapout.)
2)
Highest score at end of regulation time period or overtime.
3)
Referee Stoppage
1.
Hygiene: At weigh-ins all competitors will be checked for communicable
diseases, not limited to but including ring-worm, staph, herpes
and impetigo.
2.
Tie Breakers: There will be a one minute overtime in the event
of a draw. At the end of the 1 minute overtime if the were no
points scored it will immediately turn to sudden death in which
the first point scored gets the victory. The stalling rule will
be enforced with ZERO tolerance in overtime. The referee will
give 2 warnings and you will be deducted -1 point and given the
loss if you do not go after the victory.
3.
No Stalling: The referee will issue warning for the 1st offense
of stalling (i.e. backing out of the guard without engaging,
butt scooting, fleeing the ring to avoid takedown/submission
attempts). The 2nd offense will result in a 2 point deduction.
A 3rd offense will result in a 3 point deduction. A 4th offense
will result in a DQ.
4.
Leg Locks: Leg Locks are ILLEGAL in all kids, masters, executive,
and novice divisions. Straight ankle locks are legal for Beginner.
Straight ankle, inside figure four toe holds, straight knee bars
and calf slicers are legal for Intermediate. , All leg locks
are legal in the Advanced Men’s division. Note: Reaping
(crossing you leg across your opponents body while attacking
a foot) is illegal in all divisions except Intermediate and advanced
adult.
5.
Illegal Techniques in all divisions: No strikes, biting, eye
gouging (includes chin to eye), head butting, small join manipulation
(finger and toe locks), hair pulling, or ear pulling, neck cranks.
6.
Slamming: ZERO tolerance on slamming. This is to avoid slamming
to escape the guard and various submissions from the guard. A
competitor will be immediately disqualified NOTE - Takedowns
are not considered slamming, unless intent to injure is determined
by the referee.
7.
Neck Cranks and Twister: Neck cranks and Twister (wrestling guillotine)
are only legal in the advanced division. Intermediate division
may use the Twister setup to execute the banana split or calf
slicer.
8.
Takedowns and control: Any position must be held for a MINUMUM
of 3 full seconds before points will be awarded. If you take
your opponent down and Mount him you would receive 3 points for
the take down AFTER 3 seconds AND then 3 more seconds for the
4 point mount. Therefore you must maintain the position for 3
seconds per set of points. Guard pass points are established
when the opponent’s shoulders are flat on the ground and
your legs are completely clear of their legs. If you go from
standing to a guys back with BOTH his knees on the ground for
3 full seconds you receive 2 points for reversal.
9.
Sweeps/Reversals: Reversal of position points are given when
one opponent reverses from the bottom to the top position and
maintained for a full three seconds. The reversal has to be used
from your guard or in the immediate transition of someone passing
your guard. For example if you’re passing my guard and I
IMMEDIATELY put you on your back I receive reversal points. Note:
Rolling someone over when you are mounted or in side control
is an escape not a reversal.
10.
No-Gi Attire: board shorts, fight shorts, singlets, or Gi pants
are required. Rash guards, t-shirts, tank tops, Wrestling shoes,
knee pads (non-medal braces), headgear, cups and mouth pieces
are optional.
11.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Attire: A clean solid colored uniform is
required to compete in the BJJ Division. Uniform Jacket must
have a four finger space at cuff and sleeves within 3” of
wrist. Pants must be within 3” of ankles.
12.
Code of Conduct: We will be enforcing a zero tolerance rule on
disrespecting, threatening with physical violence, or verbally
abusing referees or staff at any time before, during or after
the event. If any spectator, coach or competitor threatens or
abuses the referee in any shape or form, they will be escorted
out of the building.
For
Rules Packet and Regeistration form please email us at:
hawaii@otmfightshop.com
Online
regestration will be avaliable after May 18th at
www.grapplingtournaments.com
Online
Regestration now open at:
http://www.grapplingtournaments.com/platnew/index.php
Pre-Regestratoin
ends Wednesday June 25th.
|
Maui Jiu-Jitsu BJJ
Tournament Date Announced!
On July 26th, Maui Jiu-Jitsu will host another one of their great
tournaments on the Valley isle. Stay tuned for more details as
they become available.
Start planning your travel arrangements now to avoid last minute
troubles. Check out the Hawaii Super Ferry and Hawaiian Airlines
recently has shown lower prices than Go Airlines.
|
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