“We were just talking about Arlovski. We want to sign him. It’s our intention to sign him. But I don’t know. We’re, well, I don’t know. We want to. Whether we will or not, I have no idea. We like Andrei and I know the fans like Andrei. I hope we can do something.”
– UFC President Dana White provides the latest update via Yahoo!Sports.com on the status of former heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski. “The Pitbull” is currently a free agent, but it has been reported that the UFC currently holds the first right of refusal on any offers that he receives from other promotions. That might not mean much with MMA upstarts like Affliction throwing around fight purses in excess of $1 million to big name fighters. In fact, there’s a rumor floating around that Arlovski and Ben Rothwell could mix it up on the debut show slated for July 19. That’s just a big bad rumor for now … time will tell.
Here’s the video from tonight’s “E:6o” episode featuring Gina Carano. What I thought was interesting was that they interviewed Shayna Baszler and Tara LaRosa about what they think of Gina being the face of women’s MMA.
What are the high points of this video from NBC Sports? It isn’t the footage of BJ Penn and Sean Sherk delivering various beatdowns, though that’s pretty awesome. Instead it’s lines like this from Joe Rogan: “Sean Sherk does not like being belittled, he does not like being insulted.”
Which makes him different from every other human being I’ve ever met? I guess there are those people with some weird fetish who like to be told how worthless they are, but even they must get sick of it from time to time.
Don’t worry, though. Dana White has a gem of his own in here: “B.J. Penn will fight you for free in your backyard if you think you’re better than him. And if by some crazy chance you beat B.J. Penn, he’ll show up and knock on your door every day to fight you again to prove that he’s better than you.”
Man, that must get annoying for Matt Hughes.
Oh, and the “fight for free” part? Yeah, Dana. Maybe if you repeat it often enough it will come true.
Sherdog has a great piece up detailing some of the things that were said at the DREAM 3 post-fight press conference. Namely, Nick Diaz said he would rather be fighting Shinya Aoki next instead of Hayato Sakurai and Jason “Mayhem” Miller said that he would love a shot at his hero, Kazushi Sakuraba.
Nick Diaz on [...]
(Seems like there was some confusion about the dress code for this event)
There are few things Tito Ortiz likes better than talking about himself. All you have to do is ask and he’ll tell you all about his tremendous impact on the sport, his extraordinary ability, his legendary cardio — he’ll even start referring to himself in the third person if you’re lucky, which is a classic move for any egomaniac, just ask Rickey Henderson.
But lately Ortiz’s rhetoric seems to be outlandish even by his standards. First there was the “I feel like a slave” remark. Then he told MMA Mania that Georges St. Pierre was “very disgusted” with the UFC, which is kind of uncool if St. Pierre didn’t want that to be made public. But in a recent interview with MMA Madness things got weirder still when Ortiz began talking about his troubles with the UFC and his future outside the organization:
MMA Madness: Have your fans stayed loyal with your impending UFC retirement or have you seen some drop off the bandwagon?
Tito Ortiz: Actually, I’ve seen my fan base increase. They’ve seen the true colors of Dana and they’ve seen that I’m not the only one saying something. Many fighters - Randy [Couture], Tim [Sylvia] - are talking about what Dana has been doing. Fans want to support me no matter where I go.
…
MMA Madness: Which organizations are you interested in?
Tito Ortiz: Definitely EliteXC. Affliction seems to be building up well. And they just started with DREAM in Japan. Any organization that will respect me and promote me as the champion that I am.
I’m sorry, did he say champion? Of what?
Don’t get me wrong, Ortiz was a great fighter who really helped the UFC through some difficult times. He takes the sport seriously, seems to be a surprisingly successful businessman, and has an uncanny ability to remain relevant in this sport. But a champion he is not.
That’s no criticism of his skills, it’s just a statement of fact. He does not currently hold a championship title in any organization. If he means former champion, fine, he is that. If he’s trying to use the word “champion” as some kind of synonym for “really good” — the way you might refer to your college buddy Moose as a “champion” beer-pong player — fair enough, I’ll even go along with that. But that’s a dangerous game to start playing, for obvious reasons. Next thing you know half the light heavyweight division is referring to themselves as champions and demanding to be treated as such.
Popular Elite XC female fighter Gina “Conviction” Carano will be showcased on the ESPN program “E:60″ tonight at 7 p.m. ET (it will be broadcast in HD, fortunately).
Carano has a historical fight coming up in less than three weeks against fellow Muay Thai specialist Kaitlyn Young on the “Saturday Night Fights” CBS under card that is set to take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on May 31.
It’s the first-ever mixed martial arts (MMA) event to air live on network television.
However, it is not her first appearance on national television. She is also a regular on NBC’s “American Gladiators” as “Crush” where she specializes in the joust. “Crush” is undefeated.
Tonight’s program will no doubt focus on women competing in MMA and combat sports in general. There will probably be a lot on Carano’s upbringing as an athlete and a fighter and how she got into MMA. It should be pretty interesting.
Definitely catch it if you can … 7 p.m. ET on ESPN or ESPN HD.
ESPN “E:60″ is hosted by Tom Farrey, Lisa Salters, Jeremey Schapp, Rachael Nichols and Michael Smith.
FiveOuncesOfPain.com has confirmed through multiple sources that former NFL All-Pro offensive lineman and six-time NCAA wrestling champ Carlton Haselrig will face “Cujo” Joe McCall during the undercard of EliteXC’s first-ever CBS show on May 31.
The match completes the seven-bout undercard.
Former Giants fullback Jarrod Bunch and former IFL heavyweight Bryan Vetell had been approached as [...]
Here’s a nice little sampler for UFC 84: Ill Will on May 24th with some hype for the main three fights: BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk, Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, and Keith Jardine vs. Wanderlei Silva. If you’re not at least pumped for Penn vs. Sherk, then I don’t know if you’re a fan [...]
Heads up, “Crush/Conviction/Beautiful Disaster” fans — Gina Carano will be featured on today’s ESPN E:60, which airs at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. A sample clip is above; after the jump is a recent American Gladiators promo where Crush reveals she prefers pizza to sushi, and can’t watch love scenes because she’s single and it’s hard to see other people in love. Awwww! :’ (
