Who ya got? UFC 145 Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans

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Tomorrow night is the long-awaited showdown between former stablemates Jon Jones and Rashad Evans for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title. Will the phenom Jones continue his ascendance, or will Evans play spoiler?

If he did, it wouldn’t be the first time. Even when Evans knocked out Chuck Liddell with an overhand right to win his first title in what was considered a huge upset, we should have known better. Evans thrives on the insistence people have in underestimating his skills and intelligence. It may seem ludicrous to call the consensus #2 Light Heavyweight in the world underrated, but it’s apt. Sure, he got caught against Machida, but it literally happens to the best of them.

I’m picking Jones, but I wouldn’t call an Evans win an upset. Not even considering that due to various injuries, Evans has only fought three times in the last two years. Because I know better by now, and you should too.

The full card, and my picks for the main broadcast:

 

Preliminary card (streaming live via the UFC’s Facebook page)

  • Featherweight bout: Marcus Brimage vs. Maximo Blanco
  • Welterweight bout: Keith Wisniewski vs. Chris Clements

Preliminary card (airing FX)

  • Lightweight bout: Mac Danzig vs. Efrain Escudero
  • Lightweight bout: John Makdessi vs. Anthony Njokuani
  • Welterweight bout: Matt Brown vs. Stephen Thompson
  • Heavyweight bout: Travis Browne vs. Chad Griggs

MAIN CARD

  • Lightweight bout: Mark Bocek vs. John Alessio
  • Featherweight bout: Mark Hominick vs. Eddie Yagin
  • Bantamweight bout: Miguel Torres vs. Michael McDonald
  • Heavyweight bout: Brendan Schaub vs. Ben Rothwell
  • Welterweight bout: Rory MacDonald vs. Che Mills
  • Light Heavyweight Championship bout: Jon Jones (c) vs. Rashad Evans

 

PICKS:

  • Bocek over Alessio via Submission, R3. Alessio’s a bit of a wild card. He’s done well for himself the last few years, but Bocek’s been fighting a much higher level of competition in the UFC and WEC.
  • Hominick over Yagin via TKO, R2. Both are finishers and this should be an aggressive, explosive encounter. A lot of people are writing off Yagin, but I think he’s going to give Hominick quite a bit of trouble.
  • (Michael) McDonald over Torres by Unanimous Decision. I like Miguel, but I think his days of being at the top of the Bantamweight Division are over, at least for the time being. The competition hasn’t completely passed him by, but but this division’s only gotten stronger in the last three years. McDonald has looked great, so great that I’m picking him to win even though he shares a name with a Yacht Rocker.
  • Schaub over Rothwell by Unanimous Decision. Rothwell is tough enough to survive Schaub’s onslaught, but doesn’t have the offensive tools to put him in any real danger. Barring bad cardio from Schaub, this is his fight to lose.
  • (Rory) McDonald over Mills via TKO, R3. This or Homonick/Yagin is going to get Fight of the Night. Mills has a good game, but McDonald is quite possibly the most underrated guy at 170 (and the one who put Nate Diaz out of the division).
  • Jones over Evans via TKO, R4. I’m having what you might call a premonition. I see Rashad keeping distance between himself and Jones in the first round and surprising him with a couple takedowns, grinding out a 10-9 on the judges’ scorecards. Then Jones will adjust and batter him the next three rounds, ending in either a stoppage early in the 4th or in Evans being unable to answer the bell. If anybody can beat Jones, it’s Evans. But the kid’s a monster. Case in point: if he wins this fight, he’ll have cleaned out the Light Heavyweight division in a manner of a couple years. Amazing.

Same Old Song: NY Senate Passes MMA Legalization, but Assembly Still Iffy

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Assembly majority leader Sheldon Silver

The New York State Senate passed the bill to legalize Mixed Martial Arts by a slightly larger margin than last year (43-14), but still faces uncertainty in the State Assembly. In the previous two years, the bill to legalize MMA (full text of bill) passed in the Senate only to be killed in Committee before it can reach the Assembly floor.

Assembly Majority leader Sheldon Silver reiterated his apprehension to the Times Union’s Jimmy Vielkind:

“I have mixed feelings about it,” said Silver at a press conference to announce tenant protection. “On the one hand I do believe it’s rather violent and it sets a tone for people. On the other hand, you can turn on the television and see it, a child can see it from their homes on a regular TV and we’re one of the few states that don’t legalize it. Obviously legalization comes with regulation, and we may be better off having regulation.”

 

“Members control the process,” he said. “The bill is in the legislative process at this point. We have a committee-driven process and we’ll see what happens. There’s a lot of sentiment for it and there’s a lot of sentiment against it.”

“I do believe it’s rather violent and sets a tone for people,” he said, ignoring the violence, injuries, and death associated with other sports. Sure, I’m countering an imbecilic observation with inflammatory rhetoric, but the point remains: if you’re really that worried about a violent sport that encourages violence in spectators, has a higher rate of death and especially paralysis, and cuts the average life expectancy of its participants by over thirty years(!), then there is a sport that needs to be outlawed immediately: football.

I’m not saying we should actually do that. We need to address the problems in the sport, most notably concussions, rather than outlawing it entirely. To an extent that’s already being done, but it’s still worth noting that the advantage MMA has over football and other sports (especially boxing) is that the infrequency of combat combined with the fact that the a fight is supposed to be stopped if even a minor concussion occurs means that its participants are far less likely to have successive minor concussions, which studies are finding to be more common and damaging than we had previously thought.

Of course folks like Silver, Bob Reilly, and others who spout their nonsense have already heard and dismissed these arguments. They’re not concerned with anything other than what they’ve already decided, and if the facts don’t fit they’re ignored. It’s a sad reality of American and especially New York politics: ideologies first, ideas second. But that’s a rant for another time.

I’ve been in contact with a couple different staffers and briefly flirted with the idea of introducing a bill that would outlaw boxing and football based on the criteria used by opponents of Mixed Martial Arts. Mind you, it’s only been discussed as an idea, so it’s not to say that it would definitely happen if I were to press it. I also don’t want to unnecessarily delay and/or endanger the process of a bill to legalize MMA hitting the floor with a stunt like that. But if it doesn’t pass again this year, it’s something I might at least try in order to prove the point that the arguments against and misconceptions surrounding MMA are unfounded and not unprecedented in sports, whether they be in a cage or on the athletic fields of your local high school.

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As a side note: this video of internet pundit Steve Crowder is being passed around. Watch it if you must, but don’t put too much stock into it. He’s a year late on a theory that’s already been debunked. The Culinary Union that is lobbying against the legislation is more than happy to claim credit for delaying the process as a means of getting back at the Fertittas (owners of Station Casinos and Zuffa, parent company of the UFC), and their opponents are also more than happy to lay the blame at their feet. This is partially my fault. But I’ve spoken to many, many people on this matter in the past year. Despite what I had been led to believe, even the most staunch critics of MMA are not basing it nor are they in contact with that or any other Union reps on the issue. It’s a smokescreen. Crowder himself might even know this, but this is the same guy who once claimed that The Daily Show was biased (um, yeah?) and bigoted (um, what?) because they sent him a polite rejection letter that, if you read between the lines, essentially says “dude, we have no idea who you are.”

There’s a Perfectly Logical Explanation for Alistair Overeem Having the Testosterone of Fourteen Men

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"Give me your horses, and I will eat them all."

From CagedInsider:

“I did speak to Glenn Robinson his manager, and he said that Overeem is respectful for the Commission’s process, and he is very hopeful that he will be granted his license,” Kruck said. “The entire team is confident that he will be facing Junior dos Santos come May 26. Now, Robinson also wanted to make it very clear that despite other reports, Overeem did not test high for testosterone. Rather, his testosterone-to-epitesosterone ratio was off, and he has a reasonable explanation for why that is, which he will present to the Commission.”

So, just to be clear, it’s not that Alistair Overeem failed a surprise drug test from the Nevada State Athletic Commission with the testosterone of fourteen men. He has the T/E ratio of fourteen men. Get your sarcastic observations straight, pal! (even though it’s the same goddamn thing)

I’m curious as to what in the world this “logical explanation” could be. The most logical is that Overeem was on the wrong end of a steroid cycle and his people didn’t expect him to have to take one for at least another couple months, but that’s not what they’re getting at.

Off the top of my head, I can think of a few “logical explanations”:

  • Like Thiago Silva, that wasn’t actually Overeem’s urine. Or human urine at all.
  • He had just eaten an entire horse before the press conference.
  • Brock Lesnar, with the assistance of WWE General Manager John Laurinitus and David Otunga, framed him as revenge for sending him packing. PEOPLE POWER!
  • His testosterone is normal, but his epitestosterone levels are really low. (Note – before anyone from Overeem’s overenthusiastic meathead fanbase actually tries use this as a serious defense: this is actually impossible.)
  • He’s just that fuckin’ manly, k?

His hearing’s set for next week (the 24th). Dana White hasn’t officially cancelled his heavyweight title shot against champion Junior Dos Santos yet. It leaves me incredulous, but I suspect the reason might be due to whatever was in the bout agreement that Overeem signed. What’s complicating (and confusing) the matter is that his license against Lesnar was conditional and, as such, he wasn’t actually licensed for the Dos Santos fight when he was tested. It’s possible (even if unlikely) that the terms of the bout agreement mean that Overeem would actually have to lose his license and/or be suspended for the bout to be cancelled.

My prediction: the hammer comes down on Overeem on April 24th and the bout immediately gets cancelled as soon as Dana is contractually allowed. He’s already said that Mir, Velasquez, and Mark Hunt (I love him too, guys, but c’mon) are out of the running. I’m thinking it’s going to be Fabricio Werdum, but we’ll see.

Ultimateball is Half MMA, Half Rugby, All Really Goddamn Stupid

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Look out, Chessboxing! There’s a new sport in town that makes you look like a fucking great idea.

Readers, have you ever watched a team sporting event and thought to yourself “boy, I wish they made this unnecessarily chaotic and claustrophobic and harder to follow by putting it in a small cage and incorporating some elements of MMA grappling.” No? Good, because if you did, then you’d be absolutely fucking mental.

Unfortunately, those kinds of people are out there. They came up with this thing called ”Ultimateball.” See, it’s Rugby but it’s in a cage, because a cage is what makes it EXTREEEEEEEEEEME!*

 

 

 

* Note: what’s actually kept the cage around is not that it makes something “ultimate” or “extreme,” but that it’s actually safer and more logical than a ring.

If Alex Gustafsson is in a Forest, but Nobody Watches Fuel TV, is Anyone Impressed?

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They're not dead or anything, this is just the image the UFC had for some reason.

Last Saturday’s UFC on Fuel TV card wasn’t seen by many (as of this writing Fuel’s available in about sixty-three households in the whole world), but as I alluded to last Friday, the overlooked card provided plenty of entertainment due to strong matchmaking.

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook)

  • Jason Young defeated Eric Wisely via unanimous decision (30–28, 29–28, 29–28)
  • Simeon Thoresen defeated Besam Yousef via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:36 of round 2
  • Reza Madadi defeated Yoislandy Izquierdo via submission (guillotine choke) at 1:28 of round 2
  • Francis Carmont defeated Magnus Cedenblad via submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:42 of round 2
  • Cyrille Diabate defeated Tom DeBlass via majority decision (29–28, 29–28, 28–28)
  • James Head defeated Papy Abedi via submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:33 of round 1.

Confession: I didn’t see a single one of these. The last fight ended up making the broadcast after the main event, but I’d already left the house.

MAIN CARD

  • Brad Pickett defeated Damacio Page via submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:05 of round 2. I missed this one, too, and I’m bummed that I did. Been reading it was a great damn fight. I might have to bit-torrent that shit somehow acquire it through legal means, my friends at the UFC! WINK.
  • John Maguire defeated DaMarques Johnson via submission (armbar) at 4:40 of round 2. Poor DaMarques. He went too hard and too aggressive for a submission and got caught himself. I feel for you, bro. That shit’s infuriating.
  • Dennis Siver defeated Diego Nunes via unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, 29–28). I take back what I said. I might be biased because I’ve been a backer since he came in to the UFC, but he looked great here. I think he’ll adjust okay despite his difficulty making weight (it was his first time fighting at 145). The only concern here is addressing the grappling deficiency he’ll run into when he gets to the upper echelon of the division, but I honestly think he’s going to adjust and be a real threat. Keep your eye on this one.
  • Siyar Bahadurzada defeated Paulo Thiago via KO (punch) at 0:42 of round 1. God damn, son. Paulo put his head wayyyyy down for an overhand right and got met with the business end of an uppercut from Bahadurzada that almost took his head off. Well played.
  • Brian Stann defeated Alessio Sakara via KO (punches) at 2:26 of round 1. I like Stann so I was happy to see him get the win here, but I was bummed to see Sakara go down again. There’s a lot of potential there. C’est la vie.
  • Alexander Gustafsson defeated Thiago Silva via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 29–28). Let me get this out of the way first: Gustafsson looked really good here. He battered Silva about the cage and wasn’t intimidated at all by the man who just last year was playing bongos on Brandon Vera’s back shortly after providing a sample to the Nevada State Athletic Commission that, it turns out, was “not human urine” (hence the one year suspension). Still, all this talk of Jon Jones – both the comparisons to and talk of an eventual bout – are wicked premature. Gustafsson looked good enough to easily dispatch a guy who’s just outside the top ten at Light Heavyweight. Does that mean he’s ready for Jones? Not even close. It does show, though, that the guy’s got a lot of upside and is only getting better.

Is it worth going out of your way to see a replay? Eh. Pickett/Page maybe, but I think you’re safe missing everything else.

You Can’t Say Anything Bad About Boxing that Boxing Doesn’t Say Itself

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"I...won? Wait, I actually won that? You mean they actually---um, YAYYYYYY!"

Imagine you were writing a novel or even a short story that satirized the state of boxing and/or combat sports as a whole. Let’s also say you were lazy and a bit of a hack. What would you do?

Well, one of the things you would do is create a scenario where a fight goes down for a vacant title belt. Then, when the contenders show up to weigh in, one of the guys doesn’t make weight. Which means if he wins, he doesn’t even win the belt, which will stay vacant. Oh, and also, what’s really at stake is a fight with a bigger star, so the title is moot. The guy who missed weight clearly loses the fight, except wait, the judges go completely the other way!

Man, what a mess. It’s just too much to fit into one fight. You can satirize the industry all you want, but you can’t throw every criticism into one event. The title being vacant then subsequently deemed meaningless, a guy missing weight because the only reason he’s fighting at it in the first place is for a bigger payday down the line, robbery at the hands of judges…it’s just too much. Even you, as big of a fucking hack as you are, wouldn’t stoop that low.

Unfortunately, reality has lower standards than you, because at all that bullshit went down at last Saturday’s bout between Brandon Rios and Richard Abril.

Sad.

 

UFC on Fuel TV 2: Gustaffson vs. Silva vs. Apathy

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UFC on Fuel TV 2 is tomorrow afternoon for the thirteen or fourteen people in North America who actually get that channel.

All cable snark aside, it’s actually a solid card in terms of fight quality. The full live card from Sweden, which starts at 3:00pm EST:

  • Alexander Gustafsson vs. Thiago Silva Gotta go with Gustafsson on this one. His chin is untested, but he’s a smarter and more diverse fighter and Silva’s coming off a year-long layoff.
  • Brian Stann vs. Alessio Sakara Both fighters are better than I think a lot of people give them credit for. Stann, however, has been a much more consistent fighter.
  • Paulo Thiago vs. Siyar Bahadurzada
  • Dennis Siver vs. Diego Nunes I’m still not sure why Siver decided one loss to Cerrone was enough to warrant a drop in weight class. He had a lot of trouble yesterday getting the scale to 145, taking three attempts before all was said and done. He’s big enough to fight at 170. He’s a damn good fighter, but I’m not comfortable with this cut at all.
  • DaMarques Johnson vs. John Maguire
  • Brad Pickett vs. Damacio Page Pickett all the way.

 

Preliminary Card starting at 12:30pm (will be streamed online via UFC’s Facebook Page)

  • James Head vs. Papy Abedi
  • Tom DeBlass vs. Cyrille Diabate
  • Magnus Cedenblad vs. Francis Carmont
  • Yoislandy Izquierdo vs. Reza Madadi
  • Besam Yousef vs. Simeon Thoresen
  • Jason Young vs. Eric Wisely

So, uh, this is awkward: Jon Jones and Rashad Evans forced to sit in a room together and hash it out

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The UFC decided things weren’t awkward enough and made UFC 145 headliners Jon Jones and Rashad Evans sit next to each other. What results is the equivalent of watching two high school kids arguing over a girl that one stole from the other.

A different direction for Mixed Marshall Arts

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Hey all!

This blog’s going to be relaunched, in a sense, fairly soon. In other words there will be posts again.

I think I’m going to take a different approach, however. Rather than try to make every single post a super-serious meditation on MMA, it’s going to be a bit lighter. Sure, there’ll be serious content, but I also want to take a lighter approach to show just how fun all this stuff can be, even in the face of the more frustrating occurrences (i.e. Allistair Overeem testing positive with a T/E ratio of FOURTEEN TO ONE).

I’ve also been watching more wrestling lately and been as frustrated as ever, so we’ll be exploring that and how it’s sort of like going back to a bad girlfriend.

Additionally, as already established, there’ll be some boxing.

In other words, “Mixed Marshall Arts” is going to be an even heavier play on words with more emphasis on the “Mixed.” MMA, boxing, and pro wrestling: because whether you’re on or off the ground, real or fake, the shit’s just fun.

Keep an eye on this space. Look forward to updating it!

The Darker Side of Combat Sports: Gary Goodridge’s CTE Diagnosis and Manny Pacquaio’s Financial Woes

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First, from Ben Fowlkes of MMAFighting.com comes the tragic story of MMA and kickboxing legend Gary Goodridge’s recent diagnosis:

“When talking to him on the phone, his speech was becoming slurred,” said Mike Mobbs, who’s counted Goodridge as his best friend since the two were nine years old, growing up in Barrie, Ontario together. “It got to the point where, when having phone conversations with him, I found myself constantly saying, ‘What did you say? Pardon?’ That, to me, was the tip-off.”

He’d forget appointments, forget whole conversations. He’d call a friend on the phone, talk to them for a while, then hang up and call them back ten minutes later. ‘How’s it going?’ he’d ask. And what were you supposed to say? That it was going exactly the same as it was ten minutes ago? That his brain was broken, and that there was nothing anybody could do about it?

…

“I had no idea about CTE,” Goodridge said. “I didn’t know anything.”

read more: The Fighter Who Stayed Too Long at MMAFighting.com

The story of Goodridge, as conveyed by Fowlkes, is heartbreaking. Particularly what it’s done to his friends and family.

People will write this off because Goodridge is at the extreme end of the spectrum of fighters who hang on too long. Goodridge is first and foremost associated with MMA, but he’s also fought in boxing, he has an even more extensive kickboxing resume. I worry people will see that and write it off as isolated, but it’s a very real problem in all of sports, not just MMA or boxing or combat sports in general. One need look only to what we’re finding out about former NFL players, in particular that their average life expectancy is hitting the low to mid 50s, mostly due to CTE-induced trauma, depression, etcetera. Sports fans are going to have to start asking themselves and their favorite leagues/promoters some very hard questions sooner rather than later.

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And from The Boxing Tribune’s Paul Magno: a much younger fighter at the very top of the game, Manny Pacquaio, is essentially broke due to the (potentially illegal) interference in his finances coming from Top Rank promotions and Bob Arum:

Manny Pacquiao’s grasp and control of an empire that has generated well over half a billion dollars is contained within six cardboard boxes filled to the brim with random receipts and hand written notes. Forbes’ 24th Richest Athlete in the World also has no idea where to find basic documents such as fight contracts, bank statements, endorsement contracts, promoter contracts, property ownership records, etc.

…

According to statements made by VisionQwest CEO, Michael Lodge, Pacquiao’s entire operation was in disarray with Manny’s advisor, Michael Koncz, assuming control of all money dealings in the absence of a full-time accountant or trained financial consultant. Little care was paid to accuracy as numbers, supplied by Koncz, were simply “plugged” into generic taxation forms and sent off to the IRS.

But disorder and sloppy record-keeping would be the least troublesome facts uncovered by VisionQwest.

According to the company, they also found out that Pacquiao’s advisor, Koncz, not only worked for Pacquiao, but was also working for Pacquiao’s promoter, Top Rank.

read more: Where in the World is Manny’s Money? at The Boxing Tribune

What more can I say? Boxing’s always been manipulative and haunted by less than reputable characters that have forever tainted and stained its image and integrity, but Bob Arum and company are among the lowest of the low. It’s nigh impossible to even imagine a guy like Pacquaio, who has generated so much money that most of us can’t even comprehend it, being cash poor. Yet here we are.

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