(Photo:Sherdog.com)

EliteXC is gradually stepping up the competition for their biggest star, Kimbo Slice.  With a series of pro wins over questionable competition, EliteXC has been forced to challenge Kimbo in order to maintain their fighter’s marketability.   It’s a tough spot to be in, where you are looking to milk every dollar possible from a limited resource, and knowing that in an effort to legitimize his talent, you will eventually expose your resource as a one trick pony.

 Well, it sounds gloomy, but then EliteXC found a 4 leaf clover in Ken Shamrock.  According to an article on Sherdog.com, the former UFC champion and founding father of professional MMA as we know it , has agreed to meet new age sensation Kimbo Slice at the 3rd installment of EliteXC’s Saturday Night Fights event on CBS.   Shamrock is indeed a step up in competition for Slice, although he hasn’t been a serious contender for years, having lost his last 5 fights and with only 1 win in his last 8 matches, dating back to 2002.

All that being said, Shamrock is still a real threat to the still developing Kimbo Slice.  He will be, without a doubt, the most dangerous opponent that Slice has met to date.  Maybe not worthy of the nickname ‘The World Most Dangerous Man” anymore, but still in good enough shape and with enough tools to grind his way through Kimbo.  In fact, if Shamrock drops this fight, I would start listening to rumors of a fix and start playing back the fight tape real slow.

Either way, congratulations for EliteXC.  they found the absolute best of the worst that they can put in the ring against Kimbo for this event.  If Slice is lucky enough to pull out a win, he will have taken the win from a legitimate MMA talent, even if he is well past his prime.

I am hardly a Ken Shamrock fan, bit I am backing Ken in this one for sure… and hopefully Shamrock goes back into retirement after this fight, win or lose.

(Photos:EliteXC)

EliteXC has had some measure of success in a prime-time window on CBS, with their “Saturday Night Fights” events.  When the news of the network deal was originally announced, it was considered monumental in terms of MMA hitting mainstream audiences and catapulting the sport into living-rooms around the globe on a level beyond what the UFC had enjoyed to date.  The truth is that with a couple of events in the books so far, the results haven’t been nearly as earth shattering as expected, and it may be back to the drawing board with the standard offering of hired talent that pack in the fans.

For the October 4th event, which will take place at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida,  Elite will haul out the fans favorites one more time.  Kimbo Slice will headline the event with Gina Carano and  a Jake Shields title defense rounding out the card.  The cards always seem chaotic to schedule and the matches are announced with short notice.  I suppose the only thing that matters is that the three big names on the card win their fights so that they can be there again to bring in some cash.

A great example of that approach is the Gina Carano fight. At the last EliteXC event, Carano was in the crowd to watch Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos destroy submission specialist Shayna Baszler on the feet.  The chatter immediately started about a potential match between Carano and Santos, but perhaps that would undermine the success of Carano in an organization rumored to be suffering from financial challenges.  It’s nothing new to MMA, where rumors regarding ‘protected’ fighters run rampant and EliteXC seems to barely hide that approach with the even shadier matches they have put together for their superstar fighter  Kevin Ferguson aka ‘Kimbo Slice’.

I’m certain that the string pulling isn’t all from the EliteXC side either, as CBS has some reputational risk at stake as well and want to get the best rating possible.  It’s free MMA and with some talented and entertaining fighters, but only 3 events into the CBS deal and I am already losing interest in seeing the same crew hit the canvass.  It’s the ultimate test of any MMA organization, to string together entertaining events with some true depth of talent that can keep a focused and often critical fanbase from getting bored.  This has always been a challenge for the UFC, but the problem is tenfold for their competition.

I will certainly check out the main card fights from the EliteXC event, but it won’t be with any sense of urgency or anticipation… more likely a record and watch later approach.  I doubt this is what CBS had in mind when they looked to secure primetime events for the fastest growing sport in the world…. 

For some more info on the Oct. 4th event - check out the EliteXC site.

 Check out some promo material for the event below:

 (Photo:Sherdog.com)

Jason MacDonald recently updated his weekly blog on Sportsnet.ca and took the opportunity to answer a lot of questions regarding his short notice fight at UFC 88 as a replacement for the injured Jason Day against Jason Lambert.  The fight gives MacDonald less than a month between events, coming off a hard fought loss to submission specialist Demien Maia at UFC 87.  As J-Mac mentions though, there are a number of motivating factors that contibuted to his accepting the fight.

I was looking to get right back in there and fight again. After a loss, it gives you an opportunity to go in and erase it. Usually it takes a couple of months, for me it’s taken a couple of weeks!

I feel really sharp of course because I just fought just over a week ago. So it was a no-brainer to take this one. Lambert is a tough opponent. But every fighter in the UFC is tough so you take the fights that are offered to you. And not to mention you only get paid when you fight, so an opportunity to get paid again within a month is nice.

And again it’s another fight for me at a new place for the UFC. It’s always nice to fight in a new city and see parts of the world I haven’t seen. It’s exciting and I expect Atlanta will be no different.

This is absolutely a good opportunity for Jason. He feels he will have the sharper game after fighting in back to back events, it’s clearly increased exposure, his opponent is a tough one, but  Lambert is having issues of his own and dropping a weight class… and maybe most important, it’s money in the bank, so why not?

I like Lambert and MacDonald, although they share very little in common from a fighting perspective. One thing they do share though, is that they have a tonne of heart.  This fight is going to be really entertaining on a personal level.

 (Photo:Sherdog.com)

In a recent blog entry on Mike Swick’s personal site, he cleared up any rumors regarding his current health status and addressed thoughts about him being on the UFC 89 card in England on October 25th. 

Just to update you and squash some of the rumors going around…
I did undergo elbow surgery last Thursday in Las Vegas. Dr. Steve Sanders and Dr. Colby Young removed some bone fragments as well as bone spurs and also cleaned up my joint. It had been an ongoing problem for a while and caused restricted movement in that arm, so we planned the surgery as soon as possible after my UFC 85 fight.

The surgery was very successful according to Dr. Sanders and he expects my elbow to fully recover back to normal. So far I feel great and am excited to be able to have full range of motion again.

As far as my next fight is concerned, there have been no talks. We will let my arm fully recover, then plan a fight accordingly. There are rumors that I am fighting in October at UFC 89 and they are false. I have not talked with the UFC at all about fighting on that card and don’t see how it could be possible. I am guessing I will return in November/December time frame.

Thanks for all the emails of support, I really appreciate it and will be back as soon as I can to give you guys a great fight!”

Not much to add to that one.  Mike is apparently out of action for a while which has been somewhat of an issue with him in his UFC career to date.  I don’t know that we have seen Swick back to the same style as his early fights with the UFC where his speed and explosiveness devastated his opponents.  Maybe the opponents have gotten that much tougher over the past 3 years, but I will be interested to see a properly healed and motivated Mike Swick get back in the action later this year.

The UFC was recently in Chicago as part of a press conference to promote and support their UFC 90 event scheduled to take place at the Allstate Arena on  October 25th.  The PPV event features a Middleweight title match between the dominant champion, Anderson Silva and the hard hitting Patrick Cote.  Both fighters were on hand to promote the event, although as with most UFC road show events, the first trip to Chicago for the UFC is looking to set gate records and pack in the fans who don’t often get the opportunity to attend a live event. 

Check out the video footage from the press conference, provided by the UFC.  The dialogue with Anderson Silva trying his best to use English in his comments to the press, combined with Cote’s own heavy French Canadian accent, makes for an entertaining audio experience. 

 (Courtesy: UFC.com)

All jokes aside, Silva is obviously the heavy favorite in this match and rightly so considering the decimation of his UFC competition to date.   That said, Silva is at least selling it like he’s not taking Cote lightly in the least.  Showing Cote some respect, even if only for his striking power makes a lot of sense as he’s taken out Scott Smith, Kendall Grove , Drew McFedries and Ricardo Almeida in his last 4 outings.  In fact, Cote has only lost one fight in his last 8 (against Travis Lutter in the TUF 4 Finale) while taking wins over current UFC talents Jason Day and Jason MacDonald in other organizations.

Not to hype the fight too much, but Cote may have more than a one punch shot at winning this fight.  He better be training for some weakness of Anderson Silva.  Chris Leben shares a similar skill set foundation to Cote, with huge punching power and a rock solid chin and we all saw what happened to him against Anderson Silva.

As for Cote, he jokes in the press conference video that, ” He has been training and working a lot on his lucky punch…” so he is very much the realist as far as popular opinion regarding his chances in this match.

Check out a brief interview with Dana White following the Chicago press Conference where he addresses many of these topics. (courtesy of Chicago Sun-Times)

  As far as I see the fight, no matter who gets put in against Silva these days, a lot of fans will scream mismatch.  Patrick Cote has shown a lot of tactical growth as a fighter and he possesses some of the most powerful punches in the Middleweight division.  Power and a gameplan, combined with a great chin give him as good a chance as anyone in the division from where I am sitting (which is btw, comfortably on my couch - away from Anderson Silva).

(Photo:Sherdog.com)

 Canadian MMA talent Jason ‘Dooms’ Day has suffered an injury in training and has been forced out of his pending match against Jason ‘The Punisher’ Lambert, who was looking to make an impact with his Middleweight debut at UFC 88.
Well, thankfully the show will go on for Lambert(so put down the cookies) , as Canada offers up another Middleweight Jason in the form of ‘The Athlete’, Jason MacDonald. (is that enough Jasons for you yet…?)  It’s somewhat short notice for MacDonald, with UFC 88 scheduled to take place on September 6th in Atlanta Georgia.

For MacDonald, it’s a chance to get back on track quickly with a win after suffering a ground battle loss to Demien Maia at UFC 87 on August 9th. Lambert is a tough competitor and a personal favourite of mine but he is also coming off some tough KO losses lately, dropping fights to Luis Cane, Wilson Gouveia and Rashad Evans.  In between the Evans and Gouveia fight though, Lambert was able to chalk up a big KO victory of his own, over standout Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral.
So, it’s two fighters coming off losses.  Lambert has the advantage of size with a drop from Light Heavyweight as well as an edge in striking power as well as MacDonald coming in on short notice.  MacDonald gets an advantage with a big edge on the ground, the fact that he is also a large Middleweight and the unknown toll on Lambert in cutting to 185lbs.

I think it’s safe to say that Lambert is unlikely to get knocked out in this match but that’s as far as I would want to go in predicting what will take place between these two on September 6th.  It’s an intriguing match in the Middleweight division between two guys that aren’t at championship level right now, but both are undeniably entertaining fighters and very solid competitors.

As for Jason Day, an entry on Sportsnet.ca indicated that a nagging arm injury is what forced him out of the bout.

“Day began feeling pain in his arm, and although initially tolerable, he realised something was different than the regular nagging injuries a mixed martial arts fighter feels. There is no range of motion in my arm, I can’t rotate it all.”

Obviously not the best scenario for Day, but with a debut victory over the well respected Alan Belcher and a tough loss to the TUFest guy in England,  Michael Bisping (Both fights taken as a replacement on short notice) ,it makes sense for Day to ensure he is able to represent his skill set  and potential when entering the Octagon again.
 

SpikeTV.com has a new flash style MMA Game available for play on their site. The game, MMA Training Ground, while not ‘UFC Undisputed’ which is in development for release in early 2009, is still reasonably entertaining… if you can pass the training that is. This game is not exactly easy, but it will leave you with a minor sense of accomplishment if you can make it through training and take a win in your first fight.

It features typical keyboard gameplay which requires the user to execute low and high kicks, punches, knees, take-downs and a few submissions to finish off your opponent. If you wondered how your reaction time might play out in the Octagon, check out the site and try your luck as the clock counts down…

Check out the the image from my first victory below and feel free to post if you beat that score of 19,159. (click the image to link to the game)

Happy Training:

(Image: Spike TV.com)

Spike TV  lives at the forefront of Mixed Martial Arts in terms of bringing the sport into living-rooms in North America.  Their 2005 partnership with Zuffa in bringing the pseudo “Contender’ reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” proved to be a success not just for the network, but a real springboard for the sport of MMA.   Dana White has been the first to admit the importance of the Finale of that first season, where Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar let it all hang out in an effort to secure the elusive 6 figure contract with the UFC.  Both fighters earned contracts that night and the popularity of the sport has been growing exponentially ever since.

Now we head into Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter and with this we move back to the old school formula of having 2 weight classes of fighters competing on the show.  This season will feature Lightweight and Light Heavyweight competitors, with each group of men looking to break into the MMA big leagues by getting the title of “The Ultimate Fighter” and the UFC backing that comes with it.  With the old comes the new, and the show will stick with last season;s successful formula of bringing in 16 fighters in each weight class and have the first few episodes focus on them as they pair off and fight just to make the final cut and earn a spot in the TUF 8  house.  

The coaches for this season of the show are not in either weight class, but are pure Heavyweights as current UFC Heavyweight Champion, Antonio Nogueira pits his team against that of former UFC Champ Frank Mir.

Let’s keep in mind that this is hardly an amateur competition, but a competition with opportunity for less well known fighters to step up to the big stage and show they can compete at an elite level.  With a keep it in the family approach, TUF 2 Champion, Rashad Evans’ brother Lance will be on the show, as will Jason Guida, brother of Lightweight fan favourite Clay Guida.

It looks like a really diverse cast and some familiar names for those who spend a lot of time watching all levels of MMA competition.  I think it will shape up to be a great season, although free MMA is always a great recipe for success on my TV.  The first episode will premier on September 17th @ 10pm EST on Spike TV

Check out teasers for the upcoming season   (Teaser 1 - Teaser 2)

The official list of TUF 8 Cast members is included below:

Read the rest of this entry »

(Photo:UFC.com)

Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver made a big impression as a heavily tattooed, opinionated and talented fighter on the season 6 of The Ultimate Fighter.  He made an even bigger impression during the Spike TV finale, where he met his housemate and friend Jared ‘J-Roc’ Rollins in a see-saw war that showed a gassed Koppenhaver TKO his friend in a stunning and emotional finish.  It was one of the better fights to air in 2007 and seemed to cement Koppenhaver as a solid addition to the UFC.

All of that almost got away from the “War Machine” as he found himself up on charges for a senseless assault charge against a mouthy punk leaving a nightclub and looking to impress friends.   Instead he got choked out by a pissed off Jon Koppenhaver.  After a good scare, Koppenhaver avoided any serious legal repercussion from the altercation and had the opportunity to return to action at UFC 84 against Yoshiyuki Yoshida.

That next fight was not as impressive for Koppenhaver, who fell victim to an Anaconda Choke from the 10-2 Yoshida, less than a minute into the first round.  Despite the loss, Koppenhaver showed a positive side in a recent blog entry where he took a break from his usual anarchist topics to reflect on the good things in his life.

All in all…tonight I was sitting here thinking about how happy I am and how good I really have it. I sleep in every day till 11:30 or so…I don’t have to do anything that I don’t wanna do. Don’t drive in traffic, don’t have a boss, all I do is train. And once a day for an hour I teach a class about the sport that I love. I get to watch my students grow and feel the pride of a father when they pull off the moves that I showed them. I have great teammates and coaches, they are like the family that I don’t really have. I get to sleep with beautiful women and I’m even about to be on a f’ing video game and have my own Upper Deck trading card! This is f’ing cool. All the sh*t I wanted when I was a lil’ kid is happening and I never even stood still long enough to see it. Crazy..
I have f’ing fans. People that genuinely respect me and care about my success, its f’ing awesome and I appreciate all of you.

That’s good news that Koppenhaver can appreciate the moderate success that he has enjoyed with the UFC so far.  It has been very clear that ‘War Machine’ has the physical tools to get the job done in the Octagon, while his mental state has always remained questionable.  With a tough childhood, Koppenhaver showed a lot of bitterness and fierce independence.  Getting past that could result in a huge upswing as far as continued development and performance gains in the toughest MMA promotion in the world today.

Change doesn’t happen overnight though, and Koppenhaver closes out his entry with a classic if not warm statement,

“…I’m living my dream and you are all working a miserable job and abandoned your dream whatever it may have been.

I can’t wait to fight again, again and AGAIN! I know I’ll win some, I know I’ll lose some but I promise myself and everyone else that I will always give it 100 percent. You’ll never see me bitch out, never see me tap to some pussy ass choke or to strikes EVER.

Baby steps for sure…

Fedor and his management team recently spoke of the difficulty in dealing with UFC and specifically Dana White when they attempted to negotiate fight deals as recently as November of 2007.   Dana White made public statements in the past regarding his frustration in trying to come to terms with Emelianenko and company, implying that they were just difficult to deal with.

In a rebuttal noted on MMA.tv, Fedor’s Manager, Vadim Finkelstein made it pretty clear that Dana White seemed to be the one with the issues as far as negotiating goes.

“Of course, he can’t deal with us because he can’t deal with anybody, he wants to have everything in his own control, but we can’t deal with people that want to control everything.”

Apparently the comments were made while Fedor Emelianenko and Randy Couture (and their respective entourage’s) were meeting to discuss options for a potential fight between the Heavyweight MMA stars.  The biggest stumbling blck to that fight taking place is obviously the legal conflict between Couture and Zuffa (The UFC). 

Despite the hard feelings, business is business and team Fedor was quick to mention that,

“If round two of negotiations with Zuffa were to take place shortly, Finkelstein said he might be open to a two-fight deal, with Couture the first opponent on the ledger. However, Finkelstein seemed less than assured that the UFC would budge from the original offer they made nearly eleven months ago. ”

“This is unfortunately the only company right now that is attempting to monopolize and essentially do everything themselves,” said Finkelstein. “That’s not what we’re about.”

From a personal perspective, I would expect this fight to happen, but not with Zuffa.  Affliction has dumped a lot of eggs into the Heavyweight basket and have secured some top fighters in the process.  By securing former UFC Champions in Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski, they have set up an opportunity to legitimize Fedor while discrediting the UFC’s Heavyweight Division.

Fedor suffered a hand injury during his recent first round destruction of Sylvia. If this wasn’t the case he would likely be meeting Arlovski next.  After beating both of those former UFC champions, Affliction would have a great case to force a bout between their man Fedor and whatever UFC Heavyweight is holding the title at the time.  If the UFC doesn’t agree to the fight, then it brings to question the validity of their Heavyweight “world” title and diminishes their ability to headline PPV events featuring Heavyweight matches.

It’s hard to tell how it will all shake out, but the stage is certainly set in favour of fighters being able to significantly increase their compensation and secure long term contracts.  As the sport grows, it is the nature of the beast, and the Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz issues are symptomatic of the transformation of MMA from back alley sideshow to mainstream professional sport. 

Thank god there are plenty of great fights to distract from legal issues and mind numbing contractual debates that are ramping up these days.