ESPN The Magazine has an interview posted with Dana White where he tells the world that the UFC will be making a visit to Atlanta, Georgia in September with Chuck Liddell as the headliner and also hints at a huge announcement to be made in the coming weeks:
DW: The fight is going to be [...]
“There’s something no one else has heard. You have no idea some of the stuff that we have planned. I’m going to make an announcement next week that is going to blow people’s minds. That deal is done, but my employees don’t even know yet. I’m renting out a place next Thursday and I’m going to tell them. Then we’ll make the announcement later that day. It’s an indicator of where this business is going over the next five years.”
Mike Dolce has decided to tell it like it is. In a blog entry penned for MMA Weekly, the season seven contestant on The Ultimate Fighter lets us in on the untold story of booze and buffoonery behind the scenes:
Moving on to this week’s episode, what can I say?
At the risk of pissing a bunch of people off, I’m going to tell you.
Personally, I knew something was seriously wrong with this production when, as a sequestered, professional athlete in the midst of a major sporting event, I could not obtain a free range chicken breast for almost 48 hours of repeated requests, but a bottle of tequila, a half rack of beer and a funnel could be delivered in twenty minutes at any time of day or night with a single belligerent phone call. All under the guise of trying to determine just who was The Ultimate Fighter…the epitome of professional athletics.
Dolce is not making himself any friends with this, but he does point out an obvious contradiction in the way TUF is run. We saw the problems created by providing the fighters with bountiful, free alcohol back in season one. Then we saw it over and over again in successive seasons. Clearly the alcohol is there because it causes problems on a show that has very little going on outside the cage. The fact that it seems antithetical to a sporting competition doesn’t seem to concern anyone.
So okay, the producers are more interested in getting the fighters plastered than in getting them to act like serious athletes. Not exactly a revelation. But wait, there’s more.
Sherdog’s Loretta Hunt attempts to make up for Andrei Arlovski’s lack of enthusiasm here, but there’s only so much you can do. Even when Arlovski describes how sad he was to leave the UFC (there were tears in his eyes, like when he left Belarus) he does so as if he’s talking about a character he’s seen in a movie. From the way he talks about Zuffa, it’s clear that he’s trying for as amicable a split as possible. Will the UFC let him walk away so easily? Suppose we’ll have to wait and see. All I’m saying is I wouldn’t fire my lawyer just yet.
Also noteworthy in this interview, Arlovski comes right out and says Ben Rothwell is better than Tim Sylvia. Could he be trying to drive a wedge between the MFS teammates as they enter training camp for their respective Affliction matches? Oh, Andrei. You sly son of a bitch.
Ryan “Fightlinker” Harkness has cast his final picks in our UFC 85 ipecac bet rematch; you can check out his take on the Bedlam matchups here. I was a little nervous picking Hughes and Werdum to win because both matches could definitely go either way, but Ryan has set my mind at ease by picking Hughes and Werdum as well (though he picked them to end by stoppage, rather than my decision calls). Of course, there are some notable points of dispute. Such as…
Michael Bisping vs. Jason Day
I said: Bisping by storm.
Ryan said: “I’m all over Jason Day’s nuts. After watching him destroy Alan Belcher, I’m convinced that there’s no way Michael Bisping is gonna be able to take him out. Bisping nearly got taken out by Elvis Sinosic for god’s sake. So I anticipate one round of tenderization and then Bisping getting subbed out on top in the second.”
Marcus Davis vs. Mike Swick
I said: Davis in a wild one.
Ryan said: “Davis has been on an upswing and Swick has been on a downswing. But Marcus hasn’t faced the kind of opponents Swick has, and has turned into a cocky motherfucker to boot. I’m expecting Swick to come in with a smart plan: put him on his back and don’t give Davis a chance to use his hands. This fight is simply too important for Swick to try and trade.”
Rampage Jackson and Jimmy Kimmel are a funny ass combo.
An 8 minute clip, laughs throughout.
Check out more Rampage Jackson content on FiveOuncesofPain.com
Whoa…Rampage has the ability to grow hair? And he’s doing it because he has an audition to play B.A. Baracus in a John Singleton re-make of The A-Team? Consider our minds blown. Big ups to Jimmy for continuing to bring MMA fighters to his couch.
“Mr. International” Shonie Carter has signed a contract with San Jose-based MMA promotion Strikeforce. Terms of the deal were not immediately available.
According to a press release issued by the promotion, Carter, 39-17-7, will make his Strikeforce debut on June 27 in a welterweight bout against Luke Stewart.
Carter is best known for two stints on reality [...]
(Can Swick go from snoozefest to Fight of the Night?)
We’re at it again. In this edition, Cage Potato editors Ben Goldstein and Ben Fowlkes debate whether UFC 85 is worth the money, which match-up will provide the most fireworks, and who’s likely to get cut once this one is in the books.
Is this card worth buying on pay-per-view? If so, do you wait until the evening re-broadcast, or go ahead and blow your load on Saturday afternoon?
Fowlkes: For hardcore MMA fans, the phrase “worth buying†is almost meaningless. Of course we’re going to buy it. We’re suckers. We factor the cost of a pay-per-view or two into our monthly budgets without even thinking about the card.
For a casual viewer, UFC 85 may not be worth the trouble. The main event isn’t exactly compelling for most people, and much of the rest of card is tailored more for the British fans than the Spike TV crowd. Considering all the events that have been crammed together recently, less fervent MMA fans may take this Saturday off and spend time with their families or some stupid shit.
As for when you watch it, some purists might wait until the re-broadcast to simulate the experience they’ve grown accustomed to, but I love daytime drinking too much for that. Normal PPV’s don’t start until 10 pm on the East Coast, and that’s just a touch too late for my tastes. I love the idea of an afternoon of fights. It leaves my evening free to pursue other interests, such as nighttime drinking.
Goldstein: If I wasn’t independently wealthy, this would definitely be a “wait until the fights show up on RuTube” kind of event. To be fair, I think UFC 85’s main card has potential, but where “Bedlam” really suffers is the undercard — no stars, no exciting newcomers, and no fights that have any impact in the league outside of determining who will be sunk in the next wave of roster cuts. (Not that it makes much of a difference in terms of the pay-per-view broadcast, since they’ll only show the most exciting undercard fights anyway.)
Still, if you’re hardcore enough to shell out for this one, there’s no reason not to catch it live. In this day and age, you’d have to go to extreme lengths to avoid having the results spoiled for you before the re-broadcast — like not coming onto this site all day, which is pretty much retarded. When there’s an excuse to get blasted before dinner, the wise man takes it.
