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(To think that such a beautiful marriage could go so wrong.)
It seems like nothing comes easy for Nick Diaz. First he gets pulled from the Strikeforce show just because of a little medical marijuana, then he tries to get back into action by signing on to fight at Dream.3 on May 11. It seemed fine, what with his next scheduled Elite XC bout not until June 14 in Hawaii, but then big bad Gary Shaw had to show up and ruin everybody’s fun.
According to a report from Sports Illustrated’s Josh Gross, Shaw insisted that Diaz be pulled from Dream.3, much to the dismay of Cesar Gracie, who claimed that Elite XC minions already approved the fight.
“Gary Shaw is going to honor the agreement that one of his underlings made, even though they didn’t pass it by him,†said Diaz’s manager Cesar Gracie. “He would have never agreed to it. [That] is what he told me, because it was too close to June 14. Right now, the fight that’s in jeopardy is the June 14 Hawaii fight.â€
Except now it seems that the Diaz camp has caved. Diaz will not fight at Dream.3 unless, in the words of GracieFighter.com, Shaw has “a change of heart.”
Too bad Shaw doesn’t seem like the change-of-heart type of guy. More like the change-of-track-suit type. Those are two very different types of guys.
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(Thanks to MMAmania.com reader “weoweoweo” for the assist.)
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Nick Diaz is being forced to withdraw from his fight against Katsuya Inoue at DREAM 3 this Sunday, May 11, at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, according to Josh Gross at SportsIllustrated.com.
Apparently there is a stipulation in all Elite XC fighter contracts that says if they’re scheduled to compete on a Showtime event then they cannot compete in any other sanctioned fight within 30 days of that event. And Diaz is scheduled to fight on June 14 against Muhsin Corbbrey on Showtime.
That would technically be 33 days, but that’s a little too close for comfort for Live Events President Gary Shaw and Elite XC.
The promotion’s reluctance to let its guy compete with such little time in between is understandable, considering they already lost one co-main event for the June 14 show when Drew Fickett had to withdraw from his welterweight title fight against Jake Shields because of a knee injury.
Originally when Elite XC and Gary Shaw signed off to let Diaz compete for DREAM he was supposed to be on the DREAM 2 card on April 29; however, according to Shaw, DREAM moved his fight to the May 11 DREAM 3 card without his approval.
Shaw claims he didn’t know anything about this switch until he read about it on the Internet two days ago.
Here’s a snip from Diaz’s trainer Cesar Gracie:
“We put these two organizations in contact with each other. They were supposed to figure it out but there was some miscommunication somewhere.”
This seems like the millionth time a Nick Diaz fight has been canceled in the past couple months. Are we ever going to see this kid fight? Hopefully, the Corbbrey scrap on June 14 actually happens.
But at this rate don’t hold your breath.
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Now that I’m fully rested from my Canada trip (and then some), I got back in touch with UFC welterweight fighter, Dustin “McLovin†Hazelett.
I had spoken several times with Hazelett over the last few weeks, trying to get him to comment on his upcoming fight with Josh “The People’s Warrior†Burkman. As instructed by the UFC, Hazelett wouldn’t comment on his next opponent until the fight was made official.
But this didn’t stop Burkman from throwing in his two cents in an interview with MMAWeekly.com. You can find those comments here.
Now that the fight is official, Hazelett opened up about the upcoming fight, responded to Burkman’s “I’ll even retire if it does go to a decision†comments, and even addressed his new nickname. The following interview is a conglomerate of our three previous conversations.
Dustin Hazelett faces Josh Burkman at The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 7 Finale on June 21.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): I’ve been trying to get you to comment on your upcoming fight with Josh Burkman at The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale on June 21, but you wouldn’t budge. This didn’t stop Burkman from talking about it, though, including saying that he would retire if the fight goes to a decision. Do you find this disrespectful?
Dustin Hazelett: Yeah, I found it pretty insulting. I think it shows a lack of respect for myself. But also, he might be concerned with the UFC cutting so many people. With his last five fights going to decision, he might be worried about getting cut if he loses or goes to a decision. So I think that might be why he said that.
To me, I don’t think it matters if a fight goes to a decision, as long as it’s an exciting fight. Of course everybody wants to finish, but if it’s an exciting decision, I don’t think the UFC cares about that. So I think it was still a pretty insulting comment.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Word is that Burkman left his camp in Utah to go train with Xtreme Couture in Vegas for this fight.
Dustin Hazelett: Yeah, I heard that.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Given that it is one of the top MMA camps in the world, does that draw up any additional concerns for you?
Dustin Hazelett: No, that doesn’t add any additional pressure. You know, Burkman’s a tough opponent. I’m not taking this lightly by any means. But it doesn’t add any additional pressure that he’s going there.
A lot of times when you go to a camp, especially your first time going there, sometimes it doesn’t work out well — people don’t know you, so it can be hard to get the adequate help you need. So it’s hard to tell whether or not it’s going to be that much more beneficial for him or not.
I don’t know how they do things there, I’ve never been there. But I’m not going to worry any extra about that, I’m just going to worry about what I have to do — worry about my training.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Burkman was quoted as saying that he wasn’t going to try to clinch or take this fight to the ground. He said, “I’m going to try and knock this dude out. So much for not giving away a game plan … there’s my game plan.â€
Dustin Hazelett: (Laughs)
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Personally, I’m not buying it. I find it hard to imagine a Burkman fight without him trying for one of his trademark slams. What’re your thoughts on it? Do you think he’s afraid to go to the ground with you?
Dustin Hazelett: I don’t know, I mean, he might be. I don’t know if he’s afraid to take me to the ground, but I would say that he probably realizes that he stands a much better chance of winning if he keeps it standing.
Personally, I think people kind of over-estimate my ground game. You know, I’m not even a black belt. But I’ve pretty much been fighting all wrestlers lately, so I’ve looked really good (on the ground).
I think (Burkman) realizes his best chance to win is to keep it standing. But I don’t like to commit to things like that, to saying, “I’m not going to do this,†or “I’m not going to do that,†or “I’m going to do this.†You know, because what if he gets rocked and decides, hey, I need a little time to recuperate. A takedown would give him that opportunity, or a clinch, but then it looks like he’s going back on his word.
So personally I think saying stuff like that is a bad idea. Whether or not he’ll actually follow through with it, I don’t know. I didn’t think Koscheck was going to stand as much as he did, but he did, even when I rocked him, he just started firing back more instead of taking me down. So it’s hard to say exactly what (Burkman) is going to do.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): How do you think you’ll fare in a stand-up battle with Burkman?
Dustin Hazelett: I think I’ll do well with him in a standup battle.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Well you did with Koscheck, you caught him with a kick.
Dustin Hazelett: I feel very confident in my standup abilities. I’ve been working extremely hard on my standup because I know I’m getting to that point where everyone worries about my ground game and realizes that it’d be easier to fight me standing than take me down, because if you put me on my back, that’s where I’m strongest. So I realize that everyone’s going to want to start standing with me. Plus, I love doing kickboxing anyway. So I always do a lot of that. But I’ve been working really hard on it.
You know, I did really well with Koscheck standing until he caught me. And Burkman fights a lot like Koscheck, only he’s not as explosive. So I think (the Koscheck) fight was a really good experience for me, because now I know exactly what I have to do. I knew going into that fight not to paw my jab, but I did it anyway, and that’s when he caught me. But that’s a mistake I won’t make twice.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Burkman has lost two of his last three fights and desperately needs a win. He also hasn’t finished a fight since January 2006. However, 10 of your 14 fights have ended in the first round—a complete 180 from Burkman. Given that he needs a win—and, as he’s stated, not a win via decision—he could act in desperation to try and finish you. Do you think that presents an opportunity and has it played into your preparation at all?
Dustin Hazelett: I realize that he’s probably going to come out really hard. Even in a lot of his fights that have gone to decision, he’s actively tried to finish people. Looking at his last couple of fights, especially in the UFC, his opponents haven’t been cans and nobodies. One of his least known recent opponents was Forrest Petz, who’s a really tough guy. He’s from around the same area that I train in. (Burkman) beat (Petz) in a decision, and I thought it was an exciting fight.
I definitely think he’s going to come out hard in this fight. And I always come out hard and come out aggressive. So I think it’s going to be a hard clash in the first couple rounds. You know, I’m not gonna really, you know, pace myself too much, because if I’m trying to pace myself and he’s going full go, then I’m gonna lose. It doesn’t matter how much energy I have if I get finished.
I think it’s going to be a really exciting first round, for sure. But like I said, it’s hard to tell exactly what he’s going to do, but in the past, he’s always come out very aggressive in the first round.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): …Which sometimes has worked to his detriment, because he has, in the past, gassed a bit by the third round. Do you think that conditioning will be a factor at all?
Dustin Hazelett: Yeah, I’m working my conditioning extremely hard for this fight. I know he comes in shape, and like you said, sometimes he gasses in the third, but the pace in the first and second is pretty high. Anybody at that pace is going to gas out, it’s just a matter of time. So I’m really hitting my conditioning hard so that I can keep up a very high pace for this fight.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): You’re now 3-2 in the UFC (10-4 overall). It’s safe to say you need a win. How many fights do you have remaining on your contract?
Dustin Hazelett: Three.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): I was at your UFC 82 fight against Josh Koscheck. You looked impressive and seemed to have won the first round. Your striking looked much improved. How much had you worked on your stand up?
Dustin Hazelett: I worked on my standup a lot for that fight. I realized that taking (Koscheck) down would be extremely hard, so I had to be able to win the standup. So that was my first priority for that fight: to win the standup. I did a lot of work on it.
I made a lot of mistakes, though. They weren’t really obvious mistakes, they were smaller mistakes. But where I was fresh in the first round, I was getting away with them. But in the second round, it kinda looked like I lost the standup…I don’t really remember much of the second round, but it looked like my pace slowed a little bit, and with a fast guy like (Koscheck), if you’re making a mistake, you can’t get away with it. And he caught me. But if I would’ve done it like I was supposed to, it would have been much better.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): In the second round, Koscheck caught you with a head kick to set up the win. How badly were you rocked?
Dustin Hazelett: What happened was, he threw a big right hand. I blocked it, but it knocked me down to my right some. It knocked me down to my right a little bit—just a bend to the upper body. Then he threw the head kick. So the right hand knocked me right into the head kick. I had my hand up to block the head kick, but his foot still caught me behind my hand and rocked me. It knocked me down. I started to stand back up, but he kinda jumped on me and started hitting me. It didn’t look like I was out, but like I said, I don’t really remember the second round.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Well in the first round, it looked like you were close to submitting Kos. How close were you?
Dustin Hazelett: The triangle was decently close. I messed up — I got preoccupied with underhooking the leg so he couldn’t slam me, and ended up letting the arm go, so he had some room to move around there. If I had kept the arm trapped, and then underhooked the leg, it would have been a lot closer, but I messed up there.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): The loss snapped your 3-fight win streak inside the Octagon, but the fight also placed you on the map for a lot of fans who might not have been aware of you before that fight. And you’re also, what, just 21, 22 years old?
Dustin Hazelett: Just turned 22 in April.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): How’s it feel to be fighting in the UFC and to have seen so much success so early in your career?
Dustin Hazelett: I mean it feels really good, but I’m kind of a perfectionist, so I’m not too thrilled coming off a loss like that. But the thing about that loss…the same thing that makes me feel better about it is the same thing that really pisses me off about it. And that’s that I messed up, and that’s why I lost. It’s not like he was better than me and he was beating me the whole time. I could have won that fight, but I messed up.
I learned a lot from it. The reason I wanted that fight was because I want to fight tougher guys, I wanted hard fights; I want to fight the best out there. I don’t regret wanting that fight or taking that fight. I definitely learned a lot from it. The next time I fight, I’m not going to make the same mistake.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): How did you first get into fighting?
Dustin Hazelett: When I was in middle school and early in high school, I got bullied a lot. I had my head shoved in the toilet a couple times. So I got into martial arts more as a necessity, more of a survival thing. Then I just fell in love with it and wanted to train all the time.
I was originally doing traditional jiu-jitsu, and then I saw the UFC and I was like, “Ah man, that’s what I want to do, I gotta do that.†I then realized that the traditional jiu-jitsu that I was taking wasn’t effective for mixed martial arts and it wasn’t that effective in general. So I quit that, and I started training in my garage for a little bit because I didn’t have my license yet. I was learning off of Maurice Smith instructional tapes.
Then finally I got my license, and I started driving to Huntington, WV, which was a 45 minute drive from the part of Kentucky I lived in, and started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu there. They didn’t teach striking there, so they said, “If you want to fight, you gotta get really good at jiu-jitsu first, because we don’t teach any striking.†I was like, “Alright.†So I started doing jiu-jitsu in the gi, no gi, doing tournaments almost every weekend, and fell in love with jiu-jitsu.
And then one day, they were just like, “Hey, you wanna fight?†And I was like, “Hell yeah, I wanna fight.â€
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): And now you’re with Team Gurgel.
Dustin Hazelett: Yeah, the gym I was at was an affiliate of Jorge Gurgel.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): How do you like training there?
Dustin Hazelett: Oh, I love it. It’s a really great place to train. They got everything you need to make it big. Plus you got a lot of good guys to work with, and you know all the guys there are highly motivated and all really want to be there. So it’s a really good atmosphere.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Have you thought about training outside of Ohio?
Dustin Hazelett: I planned on travelling around a little bit and learning from different places, but I would never leave the team. You know, just to go somewhere just to learn for a couple weeks to learn, maybe a month or so. Definitely. But the problem with that is funding and timing. I don’t want to go right before a fight. And funding is kinda limited for fighters. But eventually I’d like to travel around and learn some stuff from some different people.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): What’s the story with your new nickname “McLovin� Are you a fan of SuperBad?
Dustin Hazelett: (Laughs) Yeah, it was probably two or three days before I fought (Jonathan) Goulet. We were out at the Palms — that’s where they had us staying because that’s where we were fighting at. They had a movie theater downstairs. So Jorge and I just kept going down to watch movies out of boredom.
We watched SuperBad and we were walking out, and I said, “McLovin’s an awesome name, I’m gonna change that to my nickname,†just jokingly. And he was like, “Ha! Now you can’t go back on it.†So he called Bruce Buffer and had him put it on my card. I was kinda worried about it at first, but he was like, “Ah, don’t worry, it’ll be cool.â€
Then my mom watched the movie, which she wasn’t a huge fan of the movie because she’s a pretty strict Christian. If you’ve seen the movie you’ll know that there’s some pretty bad scenes in it.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Yes, there are.
Dustin Hazelett: But she watched the McLovin parts and was like, “That was just like you in middle school.†I didn’t realize it was that much like me, I just thought it was a cool nickname, but apparently it was pretty similar to me.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Back when you were getting swirlies?
Dustin Hazelett: Yeah.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Did you ever go back and kick those bullies asses?
Dustin Hazelett: No, I wanted to, but I realized if I went back and kicked their asses, then I’d be the bully. I went to a really small school. I’m from a very rural part of Kentucky. It’s Lawrence County in eastern Kentucky. It’s a town supported mainly by coal mining. My dad and my brother are both coal miners.
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Well Dustin, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. Would you like to thank any sponsors, and do you have any parting words for your fans?
Dustin Hazelett: Thanks for the support. Sorry for the poor performance in my last fight, but it won’t happen again.
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(Leben pauses to rethink the Sesame Street underwear, but the damage is done.)
In case you’ve forgotten, Chris Leben is still in the pokey. And it isn’t fun. According to Icon Sport Academy owner and unofficial Chris Leben spokesman, T. Jay Thompson, it’s downright unpleasant. Especially when time you’re spending in the hoosegow is time you’re not spending getting ready to fight in a month.
“It’s not a fun thing and it sucks for anybody to be in jail but it’s not like he’s afraid. He won’t be getting the right nutrition and workouts in but that’s his only concern,†Thompson told Inside Fighting recently.
Fair enough, but that seems like a significant concern. While Bisping is training twice a day, eating grilled chicken breasts and getting good rest, Leben is laying awake listening to the meth addict with night terrors a few cells down and thinking about how he can sneak an extra waffle at breakfast in the morning. That’s not how you want to prepare, ideally.
If that’s not enough stress for “The Cripplerâ€, he’s still got an uncertain fate awaiting him at his hearing on Thursday. Thompson admitted that while he had reason to hope for Leben’s release after the hearing, it’s possible he may have to stay in jail.
“Yes, we knew that was always a possibility and it still is. We won’t know until his hearing on the 8th. We are talking to attorneys and we are confident that it will be okay but there are no guarantees.
“I think its part of the growing process for Chris. Everything is meant to happen for a reason and this may be one of those things put in front of him. With any challenge there is growth on other side.â€
Leben is facing is a probation violation charge stemming from a DUI arrest in Oregon back in 2005. Thompson seems eager to support Leben in dealing with his “wreckage from the past,†but admits that maybe they were too optimistic to think that they could deal with it quietly.
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Tonight ESPNs multi-subject news magazine show “E:60″ will re-air the episode that features street fighting sensation-turned Elite XC heavyweight star, Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, which originally debuted in December 2007.
To check it out hit up ESPN in HD at 7 p.m. ET this evening.
The Kimbo segment of the hour-long show will lead off the program. In addition to the original segment that focused on Kimbo’s upbringing and path to becoming a mixed martial artist, ESPN has updated the program with discussion of his past fight with Tank Abbott, as well as his historic upcoming fight against James “The Colossus” Thompson on CBS later this month.
Also part of the original airing of this episode in December were stories on USC basketball player OJ Mayo, Base jumping, and innocent dogs caught up in the Michael Vick fiasco.
However, a recent report indicates that a new feature on Gina Carano will also likely be included in this episode, shining a bright spotlight on the network television debut of Elite XC on May 31.
“E:60″ is hosted by Tom Farrey, Lisa Salters, Jeremey Schapp, Rachael Nichols and Michael Smith.
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(Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)
Breaking into the U.K. is still a battle, and they’re just starting to dip their toes south of the border, but the UFC’s foray into Canada can now be considered a big, fat, stinking success. Dave Meltzer estimates that UFC 83 brought in as many as 650,000 pay-per-view buys — which would tie it for the third best-selling PPV event in UFC history — on the strength of a record number of Canadian buyers (estimated at about 100,000).
Expect the UFC to return to the Great White North on a recurring basis; and expect those events to be The Traveling Georges St. Pierre Roadshow. You thought Marcus Davis was typecast as “the guy who always fights in the U.K.”? Ho baby. GSP is a true star in Montreal now, and the UFC will be giving the new fans what they want. Now if they can only find a couple of other Canadian fighters to give a marketing push to, because right now they’re stuck with that one guy, and the other one, and what’s-his-face, and the dude with the crazy hair.
Somewhat related: Travis Lutter thinks Matt Serra should be worried about his job security after UFC 83. In an interview with FightHype, he said:
“I would guess Serra will have a similar fate as me if he loses the Matt Hughes fight…I mean, he was in the same locker room with me, Kalib and I think there were five other fighters that shared a locker room with him that night. Usually, the main event guys and the guy that has the belt get the nice locker room and stuff like that and here he is with one of the most crowded locker rooms. It’s really strange. They wanted GSP to get that title back so bad and he is marketable, but so is Serra. Serra is as funny as they come, but I’m sure there is a rhyme and a reason in their eyes behind doing everything; it’s just unfortunate.”
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Another high-profile matchup has been added to Affliction’s July 19th debut card (Location TBA), as Josh Barnett confirmed last night that he’ll be taking on Pedro Rizzo. It’ll only be Barnett’s second match on U.S. soil since UFC 36 (3/22/02), where “The Babyface Assassin” knocked out Randy Couture to win the UFC’s heavyweight belt, but was stripped of the title directly after for failing a steroid test; Barnett then re-launched his career in Japan, where the drug policies were, shall we say, less judgmental.
Adding to the drama is the fact that the two fighters have previously met. Barnett suffered his first career loss at UFC 30 (2/23/01) against Rizzo, who knocked out the Seattle native in the second round. Said Barnett:
“[A]fter he knocked me out with one of those really nice, well put together Pedro Rizzo right hands, I stood right there for the challenge and said you know what, I’m going to come back here, I’m going to fight him again and next time I’m knocking his ass out. So I’ve got to make good on my promises and I’ve got to stick to my word.”
Regarding Affliction 1’s current lineup — which includes Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia, and Matt Lindland vs. TBA — Josh was his usual sardonic self:
“As much as I love my buddy Fedor, it’s going to suck for him because I’m stealing the show.”
Barnett is consistently ranked among the world’s top ten heavyweights by any MMA news outlet with an opinion (this one included), despite the fact that he hasn’t had an impressive win since 2006. Beating Rizzo would help remind American MMA fans who he is, but a bout with the Brazilian UFC/PRIDE vet isn’t quite the return match we were hoping for. Rizzo has gone 2-2 since leaving the UFC in 2003; true, he scored both of his recent wins last year, but he’s also old enough to have fought Tank Abbott at Ultimate Brazil. Is anyone else getting a “Masters Superfight” vibe from this one?
Video of Barnett vs. Rizzo at UFC 30 is after the jump…
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