August 28th, 2007
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Last night UFCjunkie.com was kind enough to allow me to participate in a chat with Dan Henderson. Henderson fielded a ton of questions and I was able to incorporate some of my own.
I’ve been asked a lot of people about Jason “Mayhem” Miller and when he’ll be fighting next for the WEC. A few e-mails I received asked me if he was a free agent. According to Henderson, who trains with Miller on a regular basis at Team Quest in Temecula, Miller has one fight left on his WEC contract. The WEC doesn’t plan on running an event right now in October so the next time we might get to see him fight could be in November or December.
A lot of people asked about Sokoudjou. His contract with K-1 is not finalized yet but Henderson reiterated that Hero’s is where he expects him to end up fighting.
To read the chat in its entirety, just click here.
Written by admin on August 28th, 2007 with comments disabled.
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Steve Sievert of the Houston Chronicle has confirmed via his Brawl Sports blog what’s been discussed a lot recently, which is that the UFC has refrained from scheduling Andrei Arlovski in a match because he has just one bout remaining on his current contract.
Sievert hints that Arlovski might be asking more than what he’s worth to the UFC:
Arlovski (11-5) wants a big payday. However, the harsh reality is he’s a mediocre 2-2 in his last four and just hasn’t been impressive since 2005. A year ago, the UFC couldn’t afford to let Arlovski walk. Today, the heavyweight division has ample fire power, and doesn’t need Arlovski to make big fights.
From what I’ve heard Arlovski is asking for a sizable raise over his current deal and has priced himself out of long-term plans in the UFC. He’s been trying to increase his market value in the past several months by becoming more visible in the public eye. Arlovski attended the IFL’s semifinals in Jersey earlier this month and not only took pictures and signed autographs but was also shown on camera to the live audience.
The problem is that if he fights the way he did against Fabricio Werdum and the way he did in the second fight against Tim Sylvia then he’s really not worth all that much. If he wants to revert to the old Andrei Arlovski then he’d have a lot more bargaining power.
Sievert referred to a quote by UFC mathmaker Joe Silva who apparently said “where else is he going to go” in reference to Arlovski and his bargaining power. A lot of people are pointing to EliteXC as a possible destination but I wouldn’t count on it. EliteXC has exercised a lot of financial restraint when it has come to big names recently.
EliteXC didn’t go completely overboard when it came to Sokoudjou or Niko Vitale and aren’t major players (operative word: major) for a lot of other free agents that are out there such as Fedor, Ricardo Arona, Denis Kang, and Josh Barnett. Right now the promotion has bought a lot of smaller promotions because Gary Shaw believes that they can build new stars and wants to use talent already under contract to the smaller shows.
Another aspect that has been overlooked is the fact that EliteXC has no heavyweight division to speak of. If anything their super heavyweight division is more established with guys like Antonio Silva and Ricco Rodriguez in the fold. The bottom line is that EliteXC will need to spend money beyond what it would take to sign Arlovski in order to build a heavyweight division that would allow them to get some value out of him. You can’t put him in with a broomstick and expect him to draw a rating.
If anything I would consider K-1 to be the more likely destination for Arlovski. K-1 has courted a lot of big names recently and is reportedly close to signing both Denis Kang and Sokoudjou (although they’ve been close for a while with both and haven’t yet sealed the deals). I would also consider K-1 more of a contender to sign Fedor at this point than the UFC. Furthermore, I heard they made a play for Wanderlei Silva before he signed with the UFC.
When push comes to shove though I believe Arlovski will end up re-signing with the UFC. If Pride was still around maybe things would be different because then he’d have value to the UFC just as a fighter they’d like to keep out of the hands of the competition. But losing Arlovski to the competition isn’t a big deal when the competition doesn’t have any obvious money matchups for him.
Written by admin on August 28th, 2007 with comments disabled.
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Props: TheUltimateFigher.tv
This site is loaded with bios, pics and other profile information for the 16 welterweights competing on the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF). For more background also check out this recent post here.
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“Let’s get straight to it and say that Randy did a phenomenal job at UFC 74 in defending his title. As a fan and a fellow Washingtonian I was happy to see him win. But as for the title itself — it still sits in my house. No one in UFC ever beat me for it, and as far as I am concerned, no one in the UFC can be the heavyweight champion until they take that belt off of me in the cage. At the post fight press conference, Dana White said ‘there isn’t anyone in the world that can beat this guy’ in reference to Randy. All this because Randy beat a guy that had less than ten fights and only one noteworthy win? That’s not even a world championship level fight, let alone reason to proclaim the winner as ‘unbeatable.’ This comment was made even more ridiculous by the fact that I was standing right there, living proof that Randy Couture is definitely beatable. ‘Unbeatable,’ Dana says. If he actually believes that, I’m more than willing to step into the cage and prove him wrong. It wouldn’t even have to be for the belt. I already got the real belt. They can keep their pile of brass they purport as the UFC Heavyweight Title and put it on their next paper champ.”
– Former UFC heavyweight champion, PRIDE star and current free agent, Josh Barnett, sends a message to UFC President Dana White via his MySpace page about how he feels about the current state of the heavyweight division in the wake of UFC 74: “Respect” this weekend. Barnett defeated Couture at UFC 36 in 2002 via technical knockout (strikes) to capture the title, but was stripped shortly thereafter when it was revealed he tested positive for steroids.
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According to the MySpace page of WEC featherweight fighter Cub Swanson, his match against Jens Pulver that had originally been scheduled for Sept. 5 has been moved to Nov. 3.
Pulver was removed from the card after injuring his knee during the final weeks of his training camp. Swanson’s name remained on the card as it was believed that Scott Adams and the WEC were looking for a replacement fighter. He’s no longer listed on the Sept. 5 card.
Special thanks to reader Matt Kaplan (no relation) for the heads up.
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I came across a couple of interesting links on FightOpinion.com (a site I recommend everyone check out if you don’t already) today.
First, there are strong signals that Rickson Gracie intends to fight MMA again on New Year’s Eve. Gracie doesn’t specify for who or for where, but K-1 is the only major MMA promotion left in Japan and I don’t see Gracie fighting in the States.
Also, it appears a life has been spared. Sherdog.com is reporting that Kazushi Sakuraba’s next fight will be on Sept. 17 for K-1 Hero’s in Yokohama, Japan against former pro wrestler Katsuyori Shibata. There had been rumors that a bout between Sakuraba and Denis Kang was going to take place but Kang apparently is not formally signed to K-1 (the UFC has no idea how bad its middleweight division needs Denis Kang). Kang would have wrecked him.
I also noticed in the Sherdog.com report that former Pride and Cage Rage fighter Zelg Galesic will be fighting Dong Sik Yoon on 9/17. Galesic is a strong prospect who would have been perfect for the WEC’s 185 lbs. division.
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I’m not the only writer out there calling for the UFC to remove Babalu from its roster, as Kevin Iole from Yahoo! Sports also believes that he deserves a much more harsher penalty than a potential fine of $25,000.
Iole believes that Babalu’s transgression could in fact cost him his job:
Well, now it’s time for Babaloser to learn a lesson. And this lesson, quite likely, is going to cost him his job as well as a pile of money.
It sounds like he might know something because he spoke with Dana White, who didn’t want to comment on what he has in mind as far as a punishment:
White was very ill Monday but worked up enough of his fiery temper to summon a few choice words for Babaloser.
He declined to discuss what actions he would take because he said it’s his policy not to discuss such matters publicly, but he clearly condemned Babaloser’s actions.
You can access Iole’s article by clicking here
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Josh Barnett has left the following message on his website, JoshBarnett.tv, in which he speaks out on UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture’s win over Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 74 this past Saturday:
Let’s get straight to it and say that Randy did a phenomenal job at UFC 74 in defending his title. As a fan and a fellow Washingtonian I was happy to see him win. But as for the title itself — it still sits in my house. No one in UFC ever beat me for it, and as far as I am concerned, no one in the UFC can be the heavyweight champion until they take that belt off of me in the cage.
At the post fight press conference, Dana White said ”there isn’t anyone in the world that can beat this guy” in reference to Randy. All this because Randy beat a guy that had less than ten fights and only one noteworthy win? That’s not even a world championship level fight, let alone reason to proclaim the winner as “unbeatable”. This comment was made even more ridiculous by the fact that I was standing right there, living proof that Randy Couture is definitely beatable.
“Unbeatable”, Dana says. If he actually believes that, I’m more than willing to step into the cage and prove him wrong. It wouldn’t even have to be for the belt. I already got the real belt. They can keep their pile of brass they purport as the UFC Heavyweight Title and put it on their next paper champ.
Josh
That’s some pretty harsh stuff but before you comment please keep in mind that Barnett is a student of pro wrestling and has done a lot of it in Japan in the past. In fact, he’ll be wrestling for Antonio Inoki’s promotion in Japan on September 8 against former NCAA wrestling champ and ex-WWE wrestler Sylvester Terkay. Barnett’s comments could simply be a ploy to get him some headlines and keep his name in play. Just like Brock Lesnar, it’s another mission accomplished.
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Props: Javno.com
Quoteworthy (from UFC President Dana White):
“He [Cro Cop] made a lot of mistakes [against Gonzaga], he did not train in the cage, he let his ego get the better of him. Usually when he returns from a defeat, Mirko is very angry and good. I am convinced that we will see a completely different Cro Cop. I must admit I can hardly wait for the fight because I think it will be his first real fight since arriving in the UFC…. I still do not know who his opponent will be if he wins against Kongo, but a fight against Randy Couture for the title is possible. Anything is possible here.”
PRIDE FC 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix Champion, Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic, will look to rebound from his most recent loss to Gabriel Gonzaga when he faces Cheick Kongo at UFC 75: “Champion vs. Champion” on September 8 from the O2 Arena in London, England. Cro Cop has expressed a desire to also rematch Minotauro Nogueira before his six-fight UFC contract expires (that means after the Kongo fight three remain on his current deal).
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I just wanted to say our thoughts and prayers should go out to BodogFIGHT women’s champion Tara LaRosa, who made the following announcement through a bulletin sent via her MySpace account:
I don’t know how to write this.
I talked to Adrian, my boyfriend, on Monday August 20th. He was giving me grief about not doing enough cardio, we talked about what we would do when he got home. I told him my intenerary for the coming weeks. I gave him shit for being short, he gave me shit for not being able to tap him in close to 2 years. I told him I had been playing with playing with the rubber guard, and that I was working on adding the twister into my arsenal… to which he replied “that’s great, but you have to get me to the ground first.” …LOL he’s a really good wrestler, greco mainly. He had to go, someone in the background needed help with something, he’d call again later in the week.
My boyfriend, SFC Adrian M Elizalde was killed when an IED hit his truck on Thursday August, 23rd. He was 30 years old.
I found out at 3:30pm PST on Friday, 24th. I was in my hotel room in Vancouver, Bodog had brought me up to do some promo stuff and commentary for the season 6 shoot. For those of you that were up there, this is why I had sunglasses on throughout the fights, and why I would get up and leave periodically. The only people that knew were Jessica Aguillar, who had been 3 doors down and found me in a heap on the floor of my hotel room, and the staff. I didn’t want any of the fighters to know, I didn’t want anyone upset or distracted in any way before their fights.
Adrian was my hero in so many different ways. I used to tell him he was “my superman.” Adrian meant so much to me, I loved him so much. He was everything I had ever wanted….. I had hoped we’d spend a lifetime together.
-Tara LaRosa
It’s really sad news. We’ve lost a lot of brave men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan and I just hope we bring everyone home soon.
Written by admin on August 28th, 2007 with comments disabled.
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