Fightlinker - UFC, Strikeforce, and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) blog

Askren vs White/Everyone

news@fightlinker.com (Fightlinker.com) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:44:14 +0000

Lots of people claim to not care what other folks think, but few actually do. I mean don't. Whatever. Anyway, Bellator's wrestleweight welterweight champ Ben Askren might be one of those few. He makes zero apologies for his wrestling-only approach to MMA, and demonstrated as much against Douglas Lima two weeks ago, when he dump-n-humped his way to his second title defense and sixth consecutive decision win. Not-so-fun fact: I counted a total of one half-hearted attempt by Askren to submit or otherwise finish his opponent. The crowd voiced their displeasure throughout, so in his post-fight interview, Askren told them to go watch boxing if they don't appreciate the ground game. Which I found very ironic, considering Askren's game is about as devoid of striking as boxing is devoid of grappling. Mix your goddamn martial arts, son!

Fast forward to Monday, when Askren went on Twitter and called BS on Dana White's claim that random testing the entire UFC roster would be impossible. Askren may whoop Dana's ass in the hair department, but Dana's got serious skillz when it comes to crudely telling people off (and thereby avoiding their point) via Twitter, and so The Baldfather dropped the BOOMS you see above. Seriously, this guy spouts STFU's with the kind of frequency and fervor that not even a drunken fratboy can approach.

Many observers are calling this a bad career move on Askren's part, but Dana's already pooh-poohed that, and let's be real here, Askren's fighting style is infinitely more damaging to a potential UFC contract than a single disagreeing tweet. Besides, the UFC's welterweight division already has a Jon Fitch, so I have to presume they would reply to Askren's application with a polite PFO letter.

Invicta FC is coming!

news@fightlinker.com (Fightlinker.com) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 23:55:32 +0000

WMMA lovers, take note! InvictaFC is an all female promotion who's first event will be streaming live on the internet for free on April 28th. Now they've put together a 30 minute video breaking down some of the fighters who'll be appearing on the card.

Jon Jones and Rashad Evans jaw at each other

news@fightlinker.com (Fightlinker.com) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:58:42 +0000

The general impression I'm getting from UFC fans is the Jon Jones / Rashad Evans feud got old sometime around the end of 2011 and now it's just kinda played out. That's not to say people aren't excited about the fight - it's just the hype that's all been there done that. Can Jon and Rashad re-ignite our interest in their hatred of each other? UFC Insider does it's best to make it so.

Gina Carano on fighting again: "Who knows?"

news@fightlinker.com (Fightlinker.com) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:02:44 +0000

Gina Carano did an interview with Crave to promote her Actionfest Action Star of the Year award, and was nice enough to answer a few questions about the sport she dumped for Hollywood:

You haven’t announced whether or not you’re retiring from MMA yet, have you?
No, I haven’t. I think it’s really nice for me to get into this new career. I know I can’t make a living fighting, nor would I want to make a living fighting for the rest of my life. Plus it’s been a decade now. I don't know if you’ve been reporting or doing something for 10 years, but after you do it long enough and you find something else to put your energy towards, it’s just like starting over but it’s fresh and you have the energy all of a sudden to do it.
...
With fighting, do you have to declare you’re in or retired? Can’t you just fight if you want and take a break if you want?
That’s the way I look at it. I don’t want to be one of those people that says, “Oh, I retire. Okay, I’m back. Oh, I retire. Okay, I’m back.” I’m just like okay, this is what I’m doing right now. Who knows what’s going to come after it? I really haven’t really gotten that far yet.

Damn you Gina with your reasonable responses. Why can't you just come back and get smashed by Ronda Rousey for less money than you're making doing movies? You suck.

Dana sez

news@fightlinker.com (Fightlinker.com) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:58:30 +0000

Welcome to another edition of Dana Sez, where Dana White declares what's what and MMA websites farm his word crops for a bountiful news harvest. First up, his position on the Alistair Overeem situation:

"I will snap and freak out and I don’t want to do that," White told reporters following the conclusion of the press conference. "I don’t want to talk about it. I’m too upset about it. Seriously, I can’t talk about it."
...
"Everybody gets due process," White said. "Alistair Overeem will have his due process with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. We’ll see what happens and we’ll go from there. When it all goes down, somebody else will speak about this. Not me."

It doesn't sound like Dana White is too impressed with Alistair Overeem's plans to make a legal runaround on his positive UFC 146 drug test. Which is nice because it makes the UFC prez's next statement about random testing sound slightly less bullsh*t:

"I have 375 fighters in every country all over the world. The battle that I have to get these guys to get their [expletive] bout agreements back and show up for press is un[expletive]believable. The fact that I have to make personal phone calls to tell guys to talk to the [expletive] press. Now I'm going to start making personal phone calls to go show up for random drug tests? The general public and the media need to grasp some [expletive] concept of reality, okay? The reality of us doing all the [expletive] things that we're doing, when we already have the gold standard in drug testing, and then trying to chase 375 guys all over the world to randomly test them too? It's impossible," White said.

The UFC having the 'gold standard' in drug testing just tells you how miserable testing is across the rest of the sports world. Unfortunately, we're still in this wierd place where government run commissions are the ones responsible for testing and they're doing a wholly inadequate job.

Putting the UFC in charge of it's own testing doesn't seem like the optimal solution either. That's why they've put their support behind a new international federation that can replace their self-regulation for European shows. Are these guys going to be any better at catching cheaters as American commissions? Probably not. Oh steroids. You sticky wicket.

Fans have talked about the idea of international feeder leagues for a while now and it looks like Dana and the Fertittas are starting to toy with the idea:

(The rest after the jump!)

Nick Diaz wants this weed thing dealt with

news@fightlinker.com (Fightlinker.com) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:09:37 +0000

Up until this point, fighters haven't had the best record when going up against athletic commissions. A lot of dudes have appeared with sob stories or reasonable explanations and been sent home with the same suspension they'd have landed if they hadn't shown up at all. But Nick Diaz's gameplan seems a little different. He's going to lawyer his way through this thing, and now his lawyer has gone on the offensive:

The law does not permit the NSAC to suspend our client indefinitely pending a hearing and determination of the complaint, but imposes a reasonable and definite time limit when which the complaint must be heard and determined. By enactment effected May 22, 2009, Nevada’s legislator amended NRS 233B.127(3) to provide that “[p]roceedings relating to the order of summary suspension must be instituted and determined within 45 days after the date of the order unless the agency and the licensee mutually agree in writing to a longer period.” [emphasis added] (Prior to this amendment, the time limitation was that the proceedings be instituted and determined “promptly”.) Requests for documents, including documents which are not relevant to the matters in dispute and which are protected by statutory and common law privilege, do not operate to extend the time limit within which a hearing must be held pursuant to the statutory limitation.

The final day for the hearing and determination of the NSAC’s complaint against Mr. Diaz was therefore April 6th, 2012 — 45 days after the date of the Summary Suspension Order. In discussions with Mr. Kizer, following the Summary Suspension Order, Mr. Kizer informed me and others that this matter would be placed on the NSAC’s April agenda. Our client was and is confident that there is no basis for disciplinary action against him and therefore did not object to a delay beyond the required 45 day time limit as long as the matter was heard and determined in April.

However, our client objects to any further delay.

We presume that the NSAC will comply with its statutory obligation to have this matter heard on April 24th, 2012. If not, my client takes the position that the NSAC has by virtue of its delay irrevocably elected to discontinue or abandon its complaint against Mr. Diaz. The NSAC has no authority to hear or determine the complaint at a later date, and any such purported hearing or determination of the complaint would be ultra vires the NSAC’s statutory powers.

It will still be interesting to see how all this plays out when Diaz gets his day in front of the NSAC. They're sticklers for rules, but is that only when the rules swing their way? Or do they just cherry pick what they want and ignore what's inconvenient? While Nick's lawyer has done a helluva job interpreting the NSAC rules in his client's favor, it's the commission who gets final say on how they interpret their own regulations.

UFC champion Jon Jones’ UFC sponsor will be the UFC

news@fightlinker.com (Fightlinker.com) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:08:53 +0000

(At least it’ll be better than the “BONES” hat and Endicott jacket)

There can be no doubt that Jon Jones represents the image of everything the UFC wants to stand for. Not only does he do pretty much everything the UFC asks him to, including making an absolute fool of himself by trying to talk on television, he also puts forth a nice, clean, orthodox Christian image by promoting alcohol, fathering children out of wedlock, calling himself "Sexual Chocolate" before the big-money folks stepped in and made him change it a-la Chad “Money Shot" Mendes, and getting tattoos (Christian tattoos, mind you). So it should be no surprise that the UFC felt comfortable enough to become his clothing sponsor for his fight against Rashad Evans next Saturday:

I’ve had a goal of being sponsored by Nike for many, many years. Part of our strategy to try and make that happen one day is to not be a billboard, and not just be sponsored by TapouT one week, and Affliction one week, and then MusclePharm next week, and all these random companies. If you realize, I try to look for relationships with companies, long lasting relationships with companies. So a part of my brand is to keep it clean. Less is more in my opinion.

When Form Athletics went down pretty much every company in the business was looking for an opportunity to work with me, and I was really honored just to be wanted like that. I thought it was really awesome, it was a real honor. We came up with a strategy to keep it clean and be sponsored by the UFC itself. I’m glad the UFC wanted to work with me as well, and I think that they trust that I’ll never make them look bad. You never have to worry about me with a DWI or doing something crazy.

I think I’m a good company guy. The UFC asks me to do anything and I always do it, and I never tell them no for anything…They put in the deal that if any mainstream companies come after this win that they will let me go, and I think that’s awesome.

It’s nice to see the UFC dedicate its clothing sponsorship money to a fighter who would basically be starving if it wasn’t for this deal. I’m pretty sure that if the UFC hadn’t stepped in to sponsor Jones, he would have had to choose between selling his crappy car to pay his electric bill or living in an old refrigerator box in an alley.

Now the biggest questions are the following: will the UFC charge itself an annual sponsor fee? Will the UFC ban itself as a clothing sponsor when it inevitably rubs Fox the wrong way? What about if it decides to branch out from being a clothing sponsor to promoting fights? It should be lots of fun to kick back and watch the UFC’s incipient case of multiple personality disorder unfold before our very eyes.

Highlights from last night's UFC event

news@fightlinker.com (Fightlinker.com) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:38:53 +0000

FUEL TV continues to put up tons of UFC videos under vague non-descriptive names. Above, 'Brian Stann gets back on track', aka 'Brian Stann separates Alessio Sakara from consciousness'. After the jump, 'Alexander Gustafsson is the next big thing', aka Alexander Gustafsson decisions Thiago Silva, which is impressive but let's not get crazy now!'

UFC on FUEL chat Live NOW!!!

news@fightlinker.com (Fightlinker.com) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 09:56:52 +0000

Don't forget this weekend's piping hot serving of UFC action will be taking place in the afternoon - Prelims at 11:30 AM EST, main card action at 3PM EST, to be specific. As usual, we're going to have the chat up, so drop in if you're not doing something cool like an OMGBBQUFC party or attending Ariel Helwani's NYC pub party.

Fedor is probably fighting Rolles Gracie

news@fightlinker.com (Fightlinker.com) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 22:55:11 +0000

Fans hoping for a Fedor miracle for UFC 146 are liable to be disappointed. Not only is it becoming mind-bogglingly apparent that the UFC is really going to try and salvage Dos Santos vs Overeem, but Fedor's June fight in Russia has started to take shape. So who is he fighting?

In case you don't remember Rolles, he fought Joey Beltran two years ago in a match that was so bad the UFC cut him after only the one fight. Since then he has semi-redeemed himself against journeymen opponents, most recently taking out supercan Bob Sapp. But all that just kinda underscores the fact that Gracie is not a worthy opponent for Fedor by any stretch of the imagination. He's just a bankable last name M-1 hopes to make some money off.

So what happened to rumors that Fedor would fight Bobby Lashley? Funny story: Lashley will instead be fighting at the next Super Fight League event against James Thompson. I guess it's better to be the can-crusher than the can.