whaledog.com

Fight Opinion Radio #55: Aftermath of UFC 73

Jeff — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:46:20 -0500

Dave Doyle, Yahoo Sports MMA/Boxing managing editor, joins us to discuss the UFC 73 event from last week in Sacramento. He was at Arco Arena and tells us all about the event - what kind of fans showed up, who got superstar reactions and who didn’t, etc.

We also spend some time this week discussing the blowback that Dana White is receiving from the online MMA coummunity, specifically in regards to the Chuck Liddell/Wanderlei Silva situation. Plus, our thoughts on what fight should headline UFC 76. Hint: It isn’t Liddell vs. Keith Jardine.

The 55th edition of Fight Opinion Radio is now online and available to download. Download this week’s show here.

Or you can use the great flash player to listen to it streaming (without having to use an external program). Check it out (down below).

Podcasting: Use http://feeds.feedburner.com/fightopinionradio. This link should work for all RSS programs and podcatching programs. You’ll never miss another show again.

If you have iTunes, do the following:

In your iTunes program, go to Advanced. Then choose the Subscribe to Podcast option.
Type in http://feeds.feedburner.com/fightopinionradio.
The newest edition of Fight Opinion Radio will be automatically downloaded and future editions of FOR will download for you as well, hassle-free.

Add us as your MySpace friend.

Feedback

To contact us for show feedback, you can e-mail any of us on the Fight Opinion radio staff.

Zach Arnold - puroresupower@hotmail.com
Jeff Thaler - whaledog@whaledog.com
Erin Bucknell - eriu@hotmail.com
Luke Nicholson - LukeNicholson25@hotmail.com

del.icio.us tags: podcast, radio, whaledog

Rickson beachfight - the complete video

Jeff — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 00:22:25 -0500

Rickson Gracie's 1988 fight against Hugo Duarte on the beach in Rio has become legendary, not only because it was one of the classic BJJ vs. Luta Libre 'encounters', but also because Rorian Gracie featured a highly edited version of the fight on the Gracie in Action tapes. For years, Luta Livre fighters and fans claimed that Rorian edited out sections of the tape that show Duarte doing well in the fight.

Now, this unedited version of the fight has appeared and you can finally judge for yourself. While most of the fight is blocked by the crowd, it is interesting for historical purposes. Enjoy.

del.icio.us tags: rickson gracie hugo duarte bjj luta livre video whaledog

No conflicts should mean no conflicts

Jeff — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 10:31:53 -0500

Last year Josh Gross, the editor of sherdog.com, called me and asked me to write an article about the UFC's lawsuit against the IFL. He also asked me, in a very serious tone, whether I still managed any fighters. I told him I did not, and had not for a number of years. Josh clearly wanted to be sure I had no conflict of interest before I wrote again for the site.

Apparently, I should have asked Josh whether he and sherdog.com had any conflicts of interest, since Luke Thomas from bloodyknuckle.com noticed something last night:

I watched last night's Battleground (a much-improved program) only to realize Sherdog.com, an ostensibly independent news source for all things MMA, pays money to one particular MMA organization advertising money. In other words, Sherdog is a client of the IFL.

How is this accomplished? Easily: the Sherdog logo and website URL are printed in one corner of the ring's canvas. Alongside Sherdog's logo are the logos for Headblade and Buffalo Wild Wings; not exactly news sources the last time I checked.

. . .

So then how can they justify their relationship with the IFL? I don't know the terms of their deal and I can't say up front I've noticed any biased reporting by Sherdog on all things IFL. Then again, we also haven't seen a great number of pieces highly critical of the IFL, something that is common from other news sources or blogs.

If sherdog.com is going to present itself as a serious news source and grill its writers about potential conflicts of interest, the least it could do is avoid those conflicts itself.

del.icio.us tags: sherdog media whaledog

Happy Fourth of July!

Jeff — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 09:05:55 -0500

del.icio.us tags: whaledog

Like kissing your sister

Jeff — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 01:11:04 -0500

This is a strange turn. Dana White, speaking about the Quinton Jackson vs. Dan Henderson fight, dropped this bomb:

“No. What we’re doing with that thing is we’re respecting both (the UFC and PRIDE) titles. The UFC title is the UFC champion and we’re respecting Dan as the PRIDE champion. Quinton will walk out with his belt if Dan wins and vice versa.“

What? The champions of the Pride and the UFC will meet without their titles on the line?

I hope that Dana White and Zuffa have some big plans up their sleeves for the Pride because, using a football analogy, a non-title fight between Jackson and Hnderson feels kinda like kissing your sister.

(via UFC Junkie)

del.icio.us tags: pride ufc zuffa quinton jackson dan henderson whaledog

Zach Arnold on regulating wrestling

Jeff — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 01:12:30 -0500

Zach Arnold, my co-host on FightOpinion Radio, has a very thorough and thought provoking article on the CBS Sportsline website about the renewed movement to regulate professional wrestling:

After the tragic murder-suicide last week involving Benoit, it looks like Congress and the sports media glossed over one of the biggest industries in professional sports, which has a storied history of rampant steroid and prescription drug abuse. That "sport" is professional wrestling.

. . .

It's this complicit attitude of dismissing professional wrestling as a garbage sport that has allowed the rapid physical and mental deterioration of wrestling's performers to slide under the radar. The pro wrestling environment does not foster long-term employment. It has always been an outlaw sport, but the stakes have gotten higher as more of the marketing share in the business is concentrated in one company -- WWE.

The problem with regulating professional wrestling - and the reason it is no longer regulated by state athletic commissions - is that it is a spectacle, not a sport. Truly, it is performance art.

I, for one, doubt that athletic commissions (or whoever may implement regulation) can adequately draft regulations to distinguish between professional wrestling and other stage performances. And, taking this line of reasoning to reductio ad absurdium, do we really want to implement government mandated drug testing to protect actors in Broadway plays?

del.icio.us tags: wrestling regulation zach arnold whaledog

Crime doesn't pay

Jeff — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:28:44 -0500

Charles "Crazy Horse" Bennett missed his fight in last weekend's Strike Force show because he was arrested and could not make it to California in time for the weigh-ins. I guess that makes this video especially appropriate. Enjoy

del.icio.us tags: charles crazyhorse bennet video whaledog

Tito reacts to Dana's text message

Jeff — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:46:22 -0500

From MMA.TV, here is Tito's reaction to Dana White's now infamous "You're my enemy until the day I die" text message to Jeff "Sherdog" Sherwood:

Welcome to my world

This comes on the heals of another classic Dana White meltdown in which he called Ortiz a moron (and gratuitously slammed Ken Shamrock for good measure):

"It shows you how stupid he [Ortiz] is because he doesn't even know how much money he's made," White said. "And he made a lot of that for beating up on Shamrock."

White also scoffed at the notion that Ortiz isn't being promoted properly and pointed out that his face adorns a billboard in New York's Times Square, alongside the I-15 freeway at one of the busiest intersections in Las Vegas and all throughout Southern California.

"There's a billboard of his big ugly gorilla face at the busiest point in Las Vegas," White said, "where it can scare kids who are riding by in their cars. Guess whose ugly head is on our billboard in Times Square?

"He's a moron: A complete and total moron. His whole career, he's stepped over a dollar to pick up a dime. I'm sick of him. It's time he started beating up someone other than a nearly 50-year-old Ken Shamrock."

White also said the UFC has an ad set to run in USA Today on July 6 which has a picture of the lightweight and middleweight title belts that are up for stake at UFC 73 on the top half of the ad and has Ortiz' and Evans' faces on the bottom of it.

"Does that sound to you like we're ignoring him or not promoting him?" White said. "I'll tell you what it is, it's more proof, as if anybody needed any, that Tito is a moron."

Kimbo vs. Mercer video

Jeff — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 09:08:24 -0500

With all the talk about Kimbo Slice's fight against Ray Mercer, including our discussion in this week's edition of FightOpinion Radio, I thought I would share the video of his fight with you. Enjoy.

Fight Opinion Radio #54: Ken Shamrock speaks out

Jeff — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:43:47 -0500

Dana White recently stated that he released Ken Shamrock from his UFC contract because he didn’t feel that Shamrock could be competitive in the UFC. However, Ken Shamrock and his manager/attorney Rod Donohoo dispute this claim. On this week’s edition of Fight Opinion Radio, both men appear on our show to talk about the supposed reason that Dana White terminated Mr. Shamrock’s UFC contract. Ken also discusses his theory on UFC’s current management trying to erase the UFC’s past history and stars. Plus, where will Ken Shamrock be fighting next?

Also on this week’s show, we discuss the tragic Chris Benoit murder-suicide story and what it means for professional wrestling. Is regulation coming? Should it be coming? How would you enforce regulation? What are the costs involved? Plus, should MMA-style regulation be the model that wrestling follows? And, would the MMA industry resemble professional wrestling if there was no medical or drug testing?

The 54th edition of Fight Opinion Radio is now online and available to download. Download this week’s show here.

Or you can use the great flash player to listen to it streaming (without having to use an external program). Check it out (down below).

Podcasting: Use http://feeds.feedburner.com/fightopinionradio. This link should work for all RSS programs and podcatching programs. You’ll never miss another show again.

If you have iTunes, do the following:

In your iTunes program, go to Advanced. Then choose the Subscribe to Podcast option.
Type in http://feeds.feedburner.com/fightopinionradio.
The newest edition of Fight Opinion Radio will be automatically downloaded and future editions of FOR will download for you as well, hassle-free.

Add us as your MySpace friend.

Here's the Bob Sapp vs. Peter Aerts fight we discuss on the show. Enjoy:

Feedback

To contact us for show feedback, you can e-mail any of us on the Fight Opinion radio staff.

* Zach Arnold - puroresupower@hotmail.com
* Jeff Thaler - whaledog@whaledog.com
* Erin Bucknell - eriu@hotmail.com
* Luke Nicholson - LukeNicholson25@hotmail.com

del.icio.us tags: podcast radio ken shamrock video whaledog

. . . until the day I die

Jeff — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:49:22 -0500

As listeners to last week's FightOpinion Radio show will recall, when I saw Jeff "Sherdog" Sherwood at the last K-1 show he told me that the WEC (which has the same owners as the UFC) revoked sherdog.com's press credentials because the site had given too much coverage to K-1.

Well, I just confirmed that later during the K-1 show Dana White sent Sherdog a text message that ended as follows:

You are my enemy until the day I die. Fucking embarrassing.

Frankly, Dana White should be fucking embarrassed he sent the message. When an ego is as out of control as his, it is bound to take a fall.

Update 6/29: Coincidentally, today Oregon Live gives a little more background on the Dana White vs. sherdog.com feud:

One of the more surprising feuds to surface in recent months has been between the UFC and Sherdog.com, the largest independent MMA Web site that recently partnered with ESPN.com.

White recently stated his disdain for Sherdog.com and other MMA Web sites on a Sacramento radio show. Given the importance of Internet buzz in creating the UFC juggernaut, the statement was surprising.

"I have had a lot of battles with those guys," White said. "I have no respect for Sherdog. Half their stories are a complete (expletive) lie. It's like a tabloid.

"Plus, they went and found out who the finalists were for season four of The Ultimate Fighter and ran them. Of all the scumbaggish things. When you burn me like that, it's forever. I will never trust them or like them."

Sherdog editor Josh Gross reacted with surprise, Just as he had reacted when the UFC pulled Sherdog's media credentials two years ago.

"I dare him to point to one story we reported that we had to retract or move away from. He can't," Gross said via email. "Regarding TUF, yeah well sometimes news happens to be something people don't want out. TUF 4 was different than every other season, as it was intended to crown No. 1 contenders in two weight divisions. We're not talking about some kids no one had heard of. These were veteran fighters. And so we had who was in the finals, and reported as discreetly as possible; we warned anyone that didn't want to know that they should turn down their radios.

"Also, that doesn't explain why we were denied in Oct. of '05 when the TUF news was reported in June of '06."

Update 6/30/07: Tito Ortiz reacts.

del.icio.us tags: dana white ufc sherdog media whaledog

MMA and dog fights

Jeff — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 19:23:14 -0500

When I checked the site today I was surprised to see this Google adsense advertisement:

Zach Arnold warned us that we would see a slew of comparisons between MMA and dog fighting, and we have discussed the topic at length on FightOpinion Radio. So I have to admit that my immediate reaction was that the Google algorithms screwed up and made the same messed up comparison.

Then I clicked the link.

del.icio.us tags: mma adsense whaledog

Rex Richards makes Zach Arnold look good

Jeff — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:30:43 -0500

When we interviewed undefeated superheavyweight fighter and former Arena league football player Rex Richards on the last FightOpinion Radio show, my co-host Zach Arnold predicted that Richards would have no problem beating his opponent in last week's Strikeforce show.

Rex did not let Zack down. Enjoy.

**Note: I could not stop the video from auto starting, so I pulled it from the page. If you want to check it out, you can do so here.

del.icio.us tags: rex richards video mma whaledog

Jake Shields - it is time to see him in the big show

Jeff — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:57:14 -0500

Jake Shields is one of the the world's top 10 welterweights (number 8 according to MMA Weekly), yet he never fought in Pride and has never fought for the UFC. That's a shame.

For those of you have have not seen him fight yet, here's a highlight. Enjoy.

By the way, Jake is a very interesting guy and he is probably the world's toughest vegetarian. If you want to know a little more about him you can check out the interview he did with us on FightOpinon Radio last December.

del.icio.us tags: jake shields video whaledog

Competition, finally?

Jeff — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 23:42:25 -0500

Elite XC has announced that it is working on a new MMA reality show with Mark Burnett, the producer of Survivor, The Apprentice, The Contender and several other shows.

While a few other blogs have already commented on the story, a little noticed statement from the press release caught my eye:

Burnett, a former British commando, is said to be fascinated with martial arts and the martial arts culture. He previously took a stab at developing a martial arts reality series in 2002.

Diligent whaledog.com readers will be familiar with the story behind that show from the exclusive whaledog.com interview with (then) WFA President Jeremy Lappen. In that interview Lappen discussed the fact that he and Burnett were close to launching an MMA reality show when the UFC landed it's deal for the Ultimate Fighter. Lappen is now with Elite XC, and it may be no coincident that Elite XC revived the idea of a reality with Burnett. (Lappen, as you may recall, also had the WFA on the verge of announcing a deal with Showtime before the promotion imploded, and both he and that deal ended up at Elite XC).

While there is no guaranty another MMA reality show will be successful (think Bodog), Burnett's power and track record put Elite XC on the path to become the serious competitor to the UFC that mixed martial arts sorely needs.

del.icio.us tags: elitexc, television, jeremy, lappen, whaledog

The real difference betwen the UFC and boxing promoters - monopoly power

Jeff — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:57:29 -0500

The primary purpose of a business is to make money. I have no problem with that. But, when I saw this quote from Dana White, it got got my attention:

Fighters can make more money here or there, but the UFC is the place to create your legacy,” White said. “Fifty years from now, people are going to ask who was the best ever and the UFC has the best fighters.

After reading Dana's quote, I could not help but to think back to an article I quoted on this site in July 2006:

"You can be a boxing fan and a UFC fan at the same time," White said. "The problem with boxing, in my opinion, is all the powers in boxing have done nothing to secure the future of the sport. Guys like Don King and Bob Arum, they don't care about the future of boxing. All they care about is how much money can I put in my pocket right here and right now."

Of course, a huge difference between Ultimate Fighting Championship and boxing is that there are not as many pockets to fill. There are no Don Kings, no promoters, no sanctioning bodies like the World Boxing Council and the various other entities that get a piece of everything -- the people who often produce mismatched fights and padded records in an effort to protect their boxers.

In reality there is one essential fact that explains the between the UFC's approach and the approach of boxing promoters - the UFC enjoys virtual monopoly power. The UFC has no serious competition, and acts as both the promoter and championship sanctioning body. Meanwhile, boxing promoters have to compete with each other and deal with multiple sanctioning bodies.

Certainly, the UFC is just as greedy as any boxing promoter. It just had the single greatest year of PPV buys in the history of the world, and its president responded by saying that fighters should take a pay cut if they want the privilege of fighting for the organization.

(Hat tip FightOpinion.com)

del.icio.us tags: ufc, purses, dana, white, mma, whaledog

Dana White's take on the Pride acquisition

Jeff — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 03:46:34 -0500

When the UFC announced the acquisition of Pride, it looked like the deal was going to be an enormously important. Pride had the world's top roster of fighters, but had been suffering financially ever since it lost its television contract after stories in the Japanese press linked it to the Yakuza. The UFC's purchase was supposed to revive the promotion and reward fans by matching the top fighters from both promotions against each other.

Since the first announcement however, things seem to have fizzled. It turned out that fighter contracts were not assignable (and the UFC has been forced to try to sign Pride fighters one-by-one), and the UFC canceled all scheduled Pride shows. In fact it looks like that rather than the UFC reviving Pride promotion, it will let Pride whither and die.

Want further evidence? Check out this quote from Dana White's Entrepeneur Magazine interview:

That WEC deal will be way bigger than the Pride [a premier fight promotion company in Japan] deal, believe it or not.

The way things are going, I believe you Dana. I believe you.

(Hat tip FightOpinion.com)

del.icio.us tags: ufc, pride, dana, white, mma, whaledog

Fight Opinion Radio #53: A Fighter’s Heart

Jeff — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:03:26 -0500

Start your weekend off the right way with a new edition of Fight Opinion Radio (featuring me as your host). Our special guests this week are Rex Richards (Strikeforce) and author Sam Sheridan (buy his book here). There’s only one way to describe our interview with Sam - wild and wacky. Especially the part of the interview where we talk about dogfighting and the dark side of the culture of the fight game.

You will wholeheartedly enjoy this week’s show. Plus, the world-famous grab bag — the highest quarter-hour rated segment in all of MMA radio.

The 53rd edition of Fight Opinion Radio is now online and available to download. Download this week’s show here.

Or you can use the great flash player to listen to it streaming (without having to use an external program). Check it out (down below).

Podcasting: Use http://feeds.feedburner.com/fightopinionradio. This link should work for all RSS programs and podcatching programs. You’ll never miss another show again.

If you have iTunes, do the following:

In your iTunes program, go to Advanced. Then choose the Subscribe to Podcast option.
Type in http://feeds.feedburner.com/fightopinionradio.
The newest edition of Fight Opinion Radio will be automatically downloaded and future editions of FOR will download for you as well, hassle-free.

Add us as your MySpace friend.

Feedback

To contact us for show feedback, you can e-mail any of us on the Fight Opinion radio staff.

Zach Arnold - puroresupower@hotmail.com
Jeff Thaler - whaledog@whaledog.com
Erin Bucknell - eriu@hotmail.com
Luke Nicholson - LukeNicholson25@hotmail.com

del.icio.us tags: podcast, radio, whaledog

Forget imitating pro wrestling, MMA might see the real deal

Jeff — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 10:59:12 -0500

Zach Arnold reports that the WWE is seriously considering promoting MMA events.

Vince McMahon and the WWE ought to be very wary about getting into MMA since they have failed miserably when they have tried to promote anything other than professional wrestling. Most people probably remember the WWE's failure with the XFL, but many may not recall that McMahon also bombed with a professional body building association in the early 90's. Plus, the WWE's experiment with the "Brawl for it All" (real fights with toughman style boxing and take downs) did not go over too well with wrestling fans.

However, MMA promotion is not too different than professional wrestling (definitely closer to professional wrestling than football or body building). While I would put the WWE's chances of being able to dethrone the UFC at less than than 50%, it would definitely be a force to reckon with - one that the MMA promoters could not easily ignore.

Zach goes into great detail about how this will affect Pride, but I think another interesting question is how it will affect the UFC. If the WWE gets into MMA it not only gives the UFC a new formidable competitor, it also puts the UFC in a funny position.

The UFC has been spending its time and energy promoting itself like a professional wrestling promotion without pre-determiined outcomes (anyone know how the Dana White vs. Tito Ortiz boxing match went?), but its natural spin would be that the WWE is a pro-wrstling promotion trying to put on "phony" shows without pre-determined outcomes. You have wonder whether the UFC would counter the WWE by increasing its theatrics, or by treating MMA more like a serious sport.

In any event, regardless whether the WWE entering MMA would be good for the sport (it would not be in my opinion), this is certainly an interesting development.

del.icio.us tags: wwe, mma, ufc, business_model, whaledog

That didn't last long

Jeff — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 21:47:51 -0600

In July, Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto announced he was quitting MMA to concentrate on earning a spot on the Japanese Olympic wrestling team. Today, K-1 announced that Yamamoto will fight on it's Dynamite card.

Kid's an exciting aggressive fighter, so this is good news for MMA fans. But, it leaves you wondering exactly what has been going on behind the scenes with Kid for the last few months.

Update 10/23/06: For all the Kid fans, here is a clip one of his complete fights. Make sure you don't blink. Enjoy.

del.icio.us tags: norifumi, kid, yamamoto, k-1, video, whaledog

Quick Pride "Real Deal" thoughts

Jeff — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 10:39:44 -0500

After all the talk, speculation and the hype Pride finally ran its first show in the U.S. I have to say, it was not a bad show. There was a large enthusiastic crowd, some entertaining fights and heart tugging moments. But there were a few . . . uhhhh . . . differences from your “normal” MMA show, too.

First off, who chose the entrance music? I wanted to light candles and pour some wine when they started playing Robbie Lawler’s entrance song - and it went downhill from there.

But that was not the strangest thing about the night. Easily the strangest thing was the 20 minute intermission during a live PPV event. Whichever Pride official thought that was a good way to spend the promotion's money needs to have his head examined. Luckily I had been recording the show on my DVR, and between the pauses and times I rewound the action, I was able to fast forward through most of the intermission. If I could not do that, I think I might have pulled my hair out.

The Wanderlei Silva appearance in the ring was nothing more than pure pro-wrestling hype. Pride wants to create interest in the U.S. by calling out Chuck Liddel, but (unfortunately) I do not see anything that has changed since Dana White said the fight is off.

Now . . . on to the fights.

Fedor Emelianenko did what everyone expected by beating Mark Coleman – with the same arm bar he used to beat Coleman the first time they fought. Fedor showed no rust from his 10 months out of the ring nor any ill effects from his hand surgery.

Inevitably, whenever you see Fedor take apart another opponent you begin to wonder who could beat him. I used to believe a K1-level striker could beat Fedor, but Fedor dominated Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipovic and I do not think Mark Hunt could stop Fedor’s take downs. Tonight, I kept thinking that the Mark Coleman of 10 years ago would have had a lot more success taking Fedor down. So my new theory is that a good wrestler, who understands arm bar defense, might be the ticket.

It was heart wrenching to watch Coleman suffer both physically and emotionally after the fight. It was hear tugging to hear Coleman tell his daughters that daddy was O.K. But, did anyone else think it was a bad idea to bring his daughters in the ring after the fight? I, for one, was very uncomfortable watching them cry in their father’s arms with his face swollen and bloody. I kept thinking that the poor girls were suffering emotional trauma in front of an international PPV audience.

Speaking of fighters coming back, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua just served notice that he is ready to re-stake his claim as the number one light heavyweight on the planet. The fact that he showed such slick submission skills on the ground only proves how well-rounded his game is. I am a major fan of leg locks, so the knee bar looked real nice to me.

Kevin Randleman, on the other hand, served notice that he is exactly the same fighter we have long known. He is probably the most physically gifted fighter in MMA, but he seems to go into such a zone whenever he fights that his brain shuts off and he runs on pure instinct. The problem is that he has stubbornly refused to expand his horizons and learn about jiu jitsu and submissions, so he has no instincts if he is put in a tricky situation on the ground.

Josh Barnett proved that my personal slogan is correct. “No matter where you are, there is always a figure 4 toe hold." But he did not look his sharpest, and he would be well served by taking some time to rest and recharge his batteris before he fights again.

Dan Henderson did a good job of beating a listless Vitor Belfort. I officially stopped hoping to see the “old” Vitor show up a few years ago. I wonder how long until promoters feel the same way.

Henderson does a great job closing the distance by throwing a big looping right hand while moving in for a take down. It is like he decides whether to concentrate on the punch or the take down as he is throwing the technique. Fighters would do well to take a good look at how Henderson does this – and at how Henderson avoids getting kneed in the face (since he looks wide open to a knee).

It looked like Phil Baroni was able to convince the referee that Yosuke Nishijima was either tapping or getting his shoulder ripped apart because Nishijima sure didn’t tap. By the way, 194 pounds is not a good weight for Phil. I hope he drops down to a better weight for his next fight.

I am not sure why the announcers were so impressed with Travis Galbraith. He has heart but he is nowhere near the level of most Pride fighters, yet.

One other thing about Galbraith. He looked like his head was spinning so much from adrenaline that he might pass out before they rang the bell to start the fight. It also looked like the adrenaline rush made him gas early, so I am open to giving him another chance (as long as he learns how to keep his hands up when he punches).

Robbie Lawler’s knockout of Joey Villasenor was true highlight reel material. But, Lawler looked softer than he did in some of his old fights. He should dedicate himself in the gym before his next fight because they won’t all end that quickly.

Finally, I feel bad for Villasenor. I have been watching him fight since 2000, and with 27 fights under his belt, he truly earned his shot in Pride. But, he has come up short in both Pride appearances. I hope he gets another chance at redemption.

del.icio.us tags: pride, real, deal, fedor, emelianenko, mark, coleman, mauricio, shogun, rua, kevin, randleman, josh, barnett, dan, henderson, vitor, belfort, phil, baroni, yosuke, nishijima, travis, galbraith, robbie, lawler, joey, villasenor, mma, wanderlei, silva, chuck, liddel, whaledog

MMALibrary.com - 100% free MMA and BJJ techniques

Jeff — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 17:51:21 -0500

If you are looking for a place to pick up the latest MMA and grappling techniques for free, I ran across a great resrouce.

MMALibrary.com

If you train, or even if you just want to learn a little bit more about the techniques you have seen on TV, you ought to check it out.

del.icio.us tags: mma, bjj, grappling, technique, free, whaledog

If all elbows were like this . . .

Jeff — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 09:55:21 -0500

If all elbows were like this, I would not have come out in support of banning elbows from MMA.

I like knockouts from elbows, but elbows create many more cuts that spoil fights than knockouts.

(By the way, the video is new UFC champion Anderson Silva knocking out Tony Fryklund in Cage Rage.)

del.icio.us tags: mma, rules, video, whaledog

Fight Opinion Radio: Episode 28 (Gareb Shamus)

Jeff — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 14:25:40 -0500

With a busy weekend ahead, make sure you get caught up with the events in the world of MMA. This week, our special guest is Gareb Shamus from the IFL. Check out the IFL’s HP at www.ifl.tv for more information. We discuss what the Ken vs. Tito III 3.1 TV rating means, whether or not there is a crossover audience from both boxing & wrestling for MMA, and whether or not there is large growth potential for both the IFL & UFC in the American marketplace.

In addition, we review both the UFC 64 and HERO’s 10/9 Yokohama Arena events, plus a preview of the upcoming Bushido 11/5 Yokohama Arena show and the very special Fight Opinion grab bag. If you have any musical selections you would like to recommend to us for the grab bag segment theme, e-mail us.

You can catch the show over at fightopinion.com, download it here (click here to download) or just click play button below to listen.

Download foradio-10-20-2006.mp3

Podcasting Links

iTunes subscribers - click here.
Yahoo Podcast subscribers - click here.
Podcast Alley subscribers - click here.

Sponsors

We are looking for new sponsors. E-mail me if you are interested in placing radio show ads.

del.icio.us tags: podcast, radio, whaledog

Why not sooner?

Jeff — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 11:39:13 -0500

Nick Lembo, Deputy Attorney General of New Jersey and counsel to the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, emails in response to a question raised on the September 21 Fight Opinoin Radio show about why the Athletic Commission did not begin correcting the Zuffa Myth sooner:

The only thing was the speculation as to why we did this recently (as opposed to sooner). To answer that specifically -

I don't read promoters' press materials and at the time it was covered
correctly by sites like Full Contact Fighter.

It was actually you [whaledog.com] and Ivan T [Ivan Trembow] that brought the issue to me by covering it on your web sites. At first, it was like well maybe it's a couple of articles, but you and Ivan kept disclosing how many articles it truly was, and now in the national mainstream media.

Also, there are a lot of new fans, from TUF for example, who weren't
around when this first started and don't know any better. It's nothing personal, but the facts are the facts and we are proud of our role in MMA. So you guys deserve the credit for bringing it to my attention or else I still might not have known about it since the comments weren't seen by me in any Jersey newspapers that I read.

del.icio.us tags: zuffa, myth, njsacb, whaledog