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You know that guy who still says Whaaaaaazzzzzuuuuuuppppp! all the time? Kind of like the guy who is keeping the “Priceless” line alive. It’s about time both of these pop culture polluters died.
If you’re into “priceless” moments, Frank was on Sherdog today. He fights Cung Le on March 29th.
Written by admin on March 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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(Brad Blackburn: “My nickname sucks ass.”)
It’s about three weeks away from the IFL’s next event - which will see the return of Chris Horodecki when he takes on the just added lightweight, Nate Lamotte. Lamotte is an IFL virgin and is not the only fighter being added to the April 4th fight card. Featherweight Rafael Dias will be fighting in his second IFL battle when he joins another IFL addition, first time IFLer Carmelo Marrero, to battle for American Top Team.
ATT will face Miletich Fighting Systems’ fighters Mike Ciesnolevicz and L.C. Davis (Davis will face Dias). The last addition is “Bad” Brad Blackburn, who has compiled a 3-6 record since 2005 with one no contest. No stranger to the IFL, “Bad” Brad is slated to face Delson Heleno, who at 13-4, will be looking to bounce back from an injury TKO to Jay Hieron in December.
Here’s the rundown for the rest of the event:
When: Friday, April 4, 2008
Where: East Rutherford, N.J.
Additional Bout
155 lbs.: Chris Horodecki (11-1) vs. Nate Lamotte (6-2)
American Top Team vs. Miletich Fighting Systems
145 lbs.: Rafael Dias (10-3-1) vs. LC Davis ( 9-1)
170 lbs.: Emyr Bussade (10-5) vs. Rory Markham (12-3)
205 lbs.: Carmelo Marrero (7-2) vs. Mike Ciesnolevicz (13-3)
Midwest Combat vs. Renzo Gracie Academy
155 lbs.: Bart Palaszewski (29-10) vs. Deividas Taurosevicius (9-2)
170 lbs.: Brad Blackburn (11-9-1) vs. Delson Heleno (13-4)
205 lbs.: Vladimir Matyushenko (20-3) vs. Jamal Patterson (4-1)
Additional Championship Bouts
170 lbs.: Jay Hieron (14-4) vs. Mark Miller (8-2)
145 lbs.: Wagnney Fabiano (9-1) vs. Shad Lierley (2-1)
Written by admin on March 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Urijah Faber keeps the look alive…
(Props: CombatLifestyle via BloodyElbow)
Written by admin on March 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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I’m warning you all now: Slowly Back Down … the aisle, maniacs.
Last night I had the opportunity to attend a press screening of the MMA flick “Never Back Down,” which opens nationwide this Friday, March 14. Touch of the gloves to Austin O’Connor over at SteelSkins who provided me with the passes.
Let’s get right to it: This movie is abysmally derivative. It’s so formulaic and predictable, you’ll swear you wrote it!
And I also expect it to be a huuuuuuge hit thanks to the buying power of teenage girls (okay, and boys).
The plot is simple: A rebellious student at a new high school is lured into a world of underground fighting. Horribly embarrassed in front of the entire school, he seeks out a mentor in mixed martial arts to find his revenge.
Unintentional hilarity ensues.
Written by Chris Hauty — the mastermind who brought you his tour de force “Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco” — and directed by Jeff Wadlow — the “triple threat” director/writer/actor who you might recognize as “Next Guy in Line #1” from “Pearl Harbor” (no, I’m not joking) — Never Back Down steals from every action movie aimed at teenagers ever made.
If you’re a fan of the Fast & the Furious franchise, the Karate Kid franchise, Top Gun, or any movie starring Dolph Lundgren, by Zeus, rush out and see this movie.
Die-hard fans of MMA, which at this point I’m assuming we all are, will likely hate this film. It too often attempts to serve as an introduction to the sport for moviegoers, rather than being a movie for knowledgeable MMA fans.
For example, during training the novice hero rushes in to engage and repeatedly gets caught in submissions. With each submission, the sensei calls out “Armbar!”; or “Triangle choke!”; or “Leg lock!” Die-hard fans need no introduction to these moves and will therefore find these scenes laughable.
But teenage girls who lust after guys with no shirts, and teenage boys who want to be those guys with no shirts, will certainly make this film this weekend’s box office sensation. Mark my unfortunate words.
Even the audience last night — who occasionally laughed at the movie (I even heard a few “Gay!” comments) — ended up applauding at the movie’s climax. I felt like I was at a “Rocky” premiere in Philly. Only with rich white kids.
You might argue that that’s because the average moviegoer is dumb … and I won’t stop you.
I imagine the pre-production meeting went something like this:
We need our hero to be a quick-tempered teenager who gets embarrassed by the school’s bad-ass bully and is forced to train in MMA to redeem himself … kinda like Karate Kid!
Check.
We need our bully to be a rich, bronzed pretty boy who throws parties so elaborate for a high school teenager that even P. Diddy would say, “Damn, I wish I was invited to that party!”
Check.
We need a love triangle that puts the bully’s girlfriend smack dab in the middle of things, just like … every movie!
Check.
We need a goofy, sincere sidekick to serve as comic relief.
Check.
We need a stoic sensei preferably played by a foreigner with an accent.
Check.
Now let’s call it Karate Kid Part V: Daniel-san Gets a Ground Game. Is that taken?
Not surprisingly, the story misses numerous opportunities to develop any depth of character and instead relies on storyboard clichés and stereotypes.
Depending on your age or your interest in teenage pop culture, you may or may not recognize some of these stereotypes, er, faces. The hero, Jake Tyler, is played by Sean Faris, who’s mostly played bit parts in a few low-end television dramas. Perhaps fittingly, Faris seems to be a graduate of the Tom Cruise School of Acting.
The bully, Ryan McDonald, is played by Cam Gigandet, probably best known for his stints as Kevin Volchok on “The O.C.” and as some schmuck on the “Young and the Restless.” Even better, Gigandet is an obvious graduate of the Brad Pitt School of Acting.
Who will win? The Tom Cruise wannabe or the Brad Pitt wannabe? For those of you playing at home, start the drinking games now! Every time you see an obvious steal from a Cruise or Pitt movie, you know what to do.
There are of course a few other faces. The love interest, Baja, as she’s called, is played by Amber Heard. Her backstory is that she was rescued from the depths of geekdom by Ryan when she first moved to the school. But now that Jake is here, she relates more to him.
Thus, the triangle.
The goofy sidekick, Max, is played by Evan Peters, who does a decent enough job, albeit for a clichéd part. Prior to this disaster, Peters played Jesse Varon on the short-lived television drama “Invasion.”
Aside from Peters, the only other actor I recognized is Djimon Hounsou (”Blood Diamond,” “Constantine,” “Gladiator,” “Amistad”), who plays Jean Roqua, the sensei who operates the gym out of which he also lives. Roqua tries to impart on Jake the usual bit of Dojo knowledge: the importance of breathing, never take a fight outside of the gym, etc.
All criticisms aside, the fight choreography was pretty decent, compared to a lot of fight films. I’ve read that both Faris and Gigandet trained six hours a day, six days a week for three months to prepare for this film, which seems about right given their performances.
The camera work wasn’t bad either, although I don’t anticipate that being a selling point for this film’s intended audience. There’s a few point-of-view shots during some fight sequences that are reportedly from “lipstick cameras” incorporated by Wadlow, the director. They aren’t great, but they aren’t overused either.
We all know this film is going to be used as a marketing gimmick for MMA, so we might as well get used to it now. In fact, in leaving the theater, I was handed a flyer for One Spirit Martial Arts Combat Training Center by two teenage students of the Gracie/BJJ gym.
I hadn’t heard of it, but UFC/PRIDE/Bodog/IFL veteran Aaron Riley (23-10-1), who last fought at the IFL 2007 Team Championship Finale in September 2007, is a full-time instructor there. It even offers free lessons to beginners. Not a bad deal for Northern Virginians, and the two students were actually pretty cool (and unimpressed with most of the movie’s fight sequences).
Alas, there are smart teenagers out there after all.
At the end of the day, I see this movie doing quite well at the box office and will probably spark two sequels. Hopefully one with Billy “Sweep the leg, Johnny!” Zabka.
We can dream, can’t we?
Written by admin on March 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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(Best. Shirt. Ever.)
…at least that’s what was implied in WrestlingonTap’s new quickie interview with EliteXC boss Gary Shaw. When Shaw was asked about Emelianenko’s impending free agency, he said:
We would love to have Fedor with our organization. But Fedor and his people need to be realistic about what they are asking for. He hasn’t had a top fight in awhile. He needs to get back to fighting top competition. In the United States out of sight is out of mind.
So, we’re guessing that Shaw’s camp approached Emelianenko after news of M-1 Global’s impending collapse started to break, but were rebuffed by the two-headed demon of Finkelchtein/Echteld who demanded $2 million per fight and a guarantee that he’d never have to face Kimbo Slice. We commend Shaw for stopping just short of calling Fedor a “farce,” and we have to agree with the underlying message that Fedor Emelianenko’s name only carries weight with hardcore MMA fans, so maybe his management team should actually develop him into a star before they get all prima-donna-y.
Shaw also had some bitter words for his UFC rival, Dana White:
“First of all Dana should be ashamed of using that type of language. There is no reason for it. Dana thinks that he invented the sport of mma. He is very lucky that he had rich friends in the Fertittas to fund the sport…and even more lucky that SpikeTV bailed him out of a $35 million deficit. It’s no wonder that fighters like Tito Ortiz and others are fed up with him. Dana doesn’t care about the fighters and treating them well…
As far as Dana saying that I was never a fan of mixed martial arts, ask him to produce articles or tape on me saying the things he said I said. It can’t happen. I was watching MMA with my son back when Dana was selling used cars…”
Oooooh! That’s the best “I was doing x when you were still doing y” line since Hillary Clinton hit Barack Obama with “I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum-landlord business in inner-city Chicago.” Who could forget that zinger!
Written by admin on March 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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There’s a transcript and more details over at Setantasports.com.
Written by admin on March 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on UFC Light Heavyweight Division and UFC 85 and UFC Videos and Rashad Evans and Chuck Liddell and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and MMA.
Besides his astounding fighting ability, Gesias “JZ” Calvancante has another advantage going into DREAM’s all-star lightweight tournament that kicks off Saturday night in Saitama, Japan — he’s already faced three of the guys in the bracket. JZ scored a first-round TKO of Hidetaka Monma at K-1 Hero’s 5 in May 2006, knocked off Andre “Dida” Amade last September to win the K-1 Hero’s 2007 middleweight tournament, and ate his only loss via a decision to Joachim Hansen at a Shooto match in 2004. Here’s his meeting with Dida, which went from wild slugfest to JZ’s usual assault-from above, ending with a brutal armbar. Below that is Calvancante’s opening-round match against Vitor Ribeiro from the same night, in which Shaolin was utterly dominated in 35 seconds.
Written by admin on March 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
Former UFC fighter and Olympic medalist Matt “The Law” Lindland is taking advantage of a shortage of qualified Republicans for Oregon’s State House of Representatives seat, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Here’s a snip:
And, as is traditional on the filing deadline day, there were a few last-minute surprises. Republican House hopefuls will include both a former U.S. Congressman, Jim Bunn, who filed on Tuesday for the McMinnville seat held by retiring Rep. Donna Nelson, and an ultimate fighting champion, middleweight Matt Lindland of Eagle Creek, who is running for the seat vacated by retiring Rep. Patti Smith, R-Corbett.
Lindland is no stranger to state politics. He played an integral role in the effort to legalize mixed martial arts in Oregon after becoming the state’s first licensed promoter. Having him join the Republican House certainly can’t hurt a sport that is continually trying to break into new markets.
Thanks to MMAmaniac “Roy” for the assist.
Written by admin on March 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Mark Hunt, New Zealand’s granite-chinned goliath, is back from an 18-month hiatus following the demise of PRIDE FC to face current super-heavyweight champion Semmy Schilt at the K-1 World Grand Prix in Amsterdam on April 26.
Hunt will only compete once for K-1 before returning to mixed martial arts on May 8 under the new DREAM promotion.
After winning the K-1 World Grand Prix by knocking out heavily-favored Jerome LeBanner in 2001, Hunt eventually transitioned to the world of mixed martial arts in 2004, competing for PRIDE FC and finishing with a record of 5-3.
His debut loss may not have been the start he was looking for, but he quickly erased any first impressions by winning his next five fights, including upset victories over Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic.
His weakness on the ground was eventually exposed by submission masters Josh Barnett and Fedor Emelianenko - but not before Hunt nearly submitted the wily Russian with a kimura of his own.
The addition of Hunt to the DREAM roster is a solid one. While he still needs to work on his ground game, he can stand with anyone - and the guy can take a punch. It will be interesting to see if a victory over Schilt interferes with his timeline for an MMA return.
Either way, it’s good to have him back in the mix.
Props: RogueMag.com
Written by admin on March 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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(Yushin Okami)
Who Anderson Silva should fight next is current debate among MMA fans. Silva himself seems bored with the weak competition and has even got his eye on going toe-to-toe with champion - or ex-champion - boxers. On the MMA side of things, the name that keeps popping up to fight Silva is Yushin Okami, the middleweight that beat The Spider via disqualification a little over two years ago in a Rumble on the Rock tournament. Silva spoke to Sherdog recently - via his manager, Ed Soares - and is non too pleased with the Okami win.
Silva was dominating the fight. When Silva went to his back, Okami got in some of his best strikes of the bout. But an upkick from The Spider connected with Okami’s mug, sending the fighter back. Troy “Rude Boy” Mandaloniz held Silva back from exacting more pain to Okami. Why did “Rude Boy” hold Silva back, you ask? He was the ref for the match. That’ll for sure be a question in Trivial Pursuit: MMA, so remember it. Anyway, Okami couldn’t recover and the DQ gave him the win.
Silva has a different point of view:
“I feel it was a cheap, cowardly way of winning,” a pointed Silva says more than two years after the scrap. “People that were there saw that he was in the condition to come back and keep fighting, and he didn’t.”
Silva says he doesn’t “really think much of anything of Okami,” but the Brazilian was more poised when stuck under Henderson than he is when discussing the Japanese fighter.
“It wasn’t really a fight,” Silva describes the disqualification loss before adding that he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.
Written by admin on March 12th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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