MMAmania.com has learned that former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell is getting married. We have no details on the bride-to-be … just some random pictures.
He recently popped the question and it’s possible that a romantic trip to London, England, for UFC 85: “Bedlam” last week was the deal maker.
The 38-year-old Liddell has two children — a daughter Trista and a son Cade.
Congrats, “Iceman.”
(Thanks as always to Tracy Lee of CombatLifestyle.com for the pics. See more right here.)
Elite XC: “Return of the King†at the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii, is set for tomorrow (June 14), airing LIVE on premium cable network Showtime at 10 p.m. ET.
Fighters today all tipped the scales for the event and here are the results:
KJ Noons (160) vs. Yves Edwards (158.5)
Nick Diaz (169) vs. Muhsin Corbbrey (163.5)
Murilo “Ninja” Rua (184) vs. Tony Bonello (185)
Dave “Pee Wee” Herman (243.5) vs. Ron Waterman (263)
Rafael Feijao (205) vs. Wayne Cole (204)
Kala Kolohe (186) vs. Bubba McDaniel (184.5)
Kepa Madeiros (171.5) vs. Carl Barton (183)
Russell Doane (135) vs. Dwayne Haney (133.5)
PJ Dean (160.5) vs. Dean Lista (160)
Lolohea Mahe (260) vs. Chris Barnard (232.5)
Kaleo Kwan (160) vs. Mike Aina (160)
Mark Oshiro (140.5) vs. Chris “Red Bull” Willems (141.5)
Diaz — a 160-pound lightweight — was unable to hit the target, coming in eight pounds over the limit. However, he able to negotiate a catchweight of 168 pounds with his opponent prior to stepping on the scale.
He will likely have a percentage of his purse garnished and tacked on to Corbbrey’s paycheck.
MMAmania.com will provide complete results and coverage of the event tomorrow evening — it’s solid line up of mixed martial arts competition.
Don’t miss it … but if you do you know where to get the skinny.
“I’m doing it Tuesday. Let me tell you how out of [expletive deleted] control that thing is. I was talking to ESPN and [the reporter] was talking about competition and I said, ‘Let me tell you what. People have been trying to compete with the UFC for years, even before we bought it. The last big one everyone thought was a big threat … was the IFL. They went public, raised 800-[expletive deleted] million dollars, then they were talking about doing fighter benefits and stuff. They got the first network deal and those other guys weren’t the first on. They got time on 60 Minutes with us when 60 Minutes did their piece on us, and now the IFL is gone. They are [expletive deleted] down, their stock is worth half a cent (Editor’s note: IFLI closed today at $0.02). That’s what we were talking about that day and I said I’m going to make an announcement to my employees that shows everyone exactly where this business is going in the next couple years. I said I wanted to make the announcement to my employees, so it’s not even like I was making a big announcement to the media. If I was doing that I would’ve had a big news conference and then gone off to London. I wanted to wait until I was back to do it. It’s a big [expletive deleted] announcement, it’s a big [expletive deleted] deal but I got a lot of other stuff we’re working on right now. It was never anything I said I was going to announce to the media…. I wanted to do it after I got back from England and I got back late Wednesday. Also, all of our people are going to be in town next week for The Ultimate Fighter finale. All of our production guys, Joe Rogan, I mean everyone who works for the UFC is coming to it.”
It’s apparently still a big fucking announcement, but he never intended for it to be announced to the media. That certainly rules out “going public” even though White has shot down those rumors fast and furious. Interesting clue that the announcement is somehow tied to the IFL and competition. Whatever. This site is done passing along news on this matter until Tuesday when we hear it from the horse’s mouth. Feel free to speculate and go nuts in the comments section below.
Listen carefully... What's that you hear in the hallowed halls of mixed martial arts?
The sound of silence, since "Announcement Thursday" has come and gone with nothing from Dana White.
With the "big announcement" pushed to this coming Tuesday, many have overlooked the significance of this past Tuesday, which had the UFC and IFL making announcements that could not be more opposite.
While the UFC was announcing a deal with Jakks Pacific that will put UFC fighter action figures in the hands of children of all ages, the IFL announced it was canceling its August 15th show in NJ because of a cash shortage.
While the IFL's website contends it's "not dead yet," the road to recovery will be hard for the league that as recently as a month ago, planned to go into New Jersey guns blazing and unveiling a new six-sided ring dubbed "The Hex."
On the face of it the scenario is pretty simple: The UFC has a lotta money... And the IFL doesn't.
But the undertones of these announcements made on the same day are pretty profound.
Leading up to "Big Announcement Tuesday," MMAPayout's Andrew Falzon will write a series of posted entitled "Undertones of MMA."
Each article will be a brief commentary on one of the conclusions that can be drawn from announcements made last Tuesday.
The topics will include:
Saturday - MMA Sport or Lifestyle? (posting later today at 3 PM)
Sunday - The Flood Gates Are Not Opened
Monday - UFC By KO in Round 1
Tuesday - If Dana White doesn't again disappoint fans by having to reschedule an announcement that was supposedly a "done deal" we'll be focusing on his overtones, and not the The Undertones of MMA.
If you’re like me, you probably spend way too much time watching MMA videos on the internet. You probably also have this thing on your neck that everyone says you should go to a doctor about, and you say you will, but you know you won’t.
Anyway, in the brief time you have to live you should really check out Genghis Con, who is single-handedly the greatest creator of MMA highlight videos. You may have seen his stuff already. If you haven’t, do yourself a favor and check it out.
How can you tell he’s good? He makes a video about guys like Drew Fickett, Jorge Masvidal, and Jay Hieron into something that’s completely riveting. Anybody can do something great with a Fedor video. Well, not me, but anybody with video editing skills. But it takes talent to pull something like “Natural Born Killers” off.
Respect the skills, people. That’s all.
Written by admin on June 13th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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(We know he can take a beating, but can he still give one?)
I admit it, I was shocked to see the betting odds for Dream.4 list Kazushi Sakuraba as a favorite over Melvin Manhoef. In his time, Sakuraba was a beautiful phenomenon. And yet, all things come to an end. He’s old, he’s banged up, and Manhoef plays to all his greatest weaknesses (crazy strikers with a hankering for blood).
Then I remembered Guy Mezger’s comments about the shenanigans that have been known to happen in Japan, and I thought twice. Could that be it? Could enough people be putting money down on Sakuraba as a sentimental favorite? Maybe. Or maybe all they remember are the good old days.
After going back and taking a look, I admit it, Sakuraba’s good old days were pretty good. Refresh your own memory with this fun highlight. After the jump, take a look at Manhoef’s. Should be an interesting weekend.
2008 is shaping up to be the busiest and most exciting year in MMA’s history — which is a great thing, unless you’re trying to keep your top ten lists current, in which case it’s a total pain in the ass. Though there aren’t many profound changes in the latest update to our Power Rankings page, recent events have caused some fighters to drop due to losses (i.e., Matt Hughes, Sean Sherk, Hayato Sakurai, Masakazu Imanari) some to jump up after big wins (Wanderlei Silva, Thiago Alves, Power Rankings newcomer Gegard Mousasi), and some to secure their already impressive positions (Lyoto Machida, Urijah Faber, Robbie Lawler). Give it a look, and click on each weight class for additional notes and to leave comments. And stay tuned, as Sunday’s DREAM.4 card could produce some changes in the middleweight list, and July 21st’s Affliction event could lead to a massive re-shuffling of the heavyweight deck.
IFL CEO Jay Larkin is no stranger to making crybaby speeches when things aren’t going so well. But with the IFL canceling events until further notice, and with its publicly traded stock currently hovering at two fucking pennies (down from $17 per share in January 2007), it’s not going to get much worse than this, business-wise. Larkin knows it, which gives him the freedom to say whatever pops into his head, no matter how gross it makes him look.
Business magazine Portfolio just published a profile on IFL’s current tailspin, in which it revealed that the company is now on the auction block for a cool million. Here’s the third paragraph, which follows a description of a recent IFL fight, written in wildly purple prose:
Jay Larkin surveys the inaction with a weary, seen-it-all expression. “This isn’t my idea of fighting,” he says of the world’s fastest-growing spectator sport. “To me, two guys rolling around on the floor is tedious, like watching gay foreplay.”
Wow. And this guy runs an MMA league? He sounds like your average message-board troll. Later, presumably after a few more whisky-sodas, Larkin drops another gem:
“Our so-called friends in the M.M.A. [mixed martial arts] world are telling people that the I.F.L. is going out of business,” says Larkin. “I like to tell people you can’t spell fuck without U.F.C.”
Glug, glug. Luckily, it’s over for this man. Maybe he could go back to boxing, where things are simpler, and less similar to gay foreplay. I guess the demise of the IFL should be lamentable, but it’s hard to work up even a shred of sympathy for such a deluded dickhead. Anyway, read the article, which also contains the following highlights:
— Even IFL co-founder Gareb Shamus calls MMA “Ultimate Fighting.”
— By the end of October 2007, the IFL’s MyNetwork TV broadcasts were pulling in about 362,000 viewers (barely registering on the Nielsen scale), and their average age (49) was almost twice that of the typical UFC fan.
— Despite spending far more money than they’re taking in, Larkin still says the IFL is “debt-free.”
Welcome back to another edition of The Duel. This week features two spirited long time rivals in the form of me battling nokaut.com and fiveounces contributor Caleb Newby. Let the battle begin…. and don’t forget to vote for the winner (me).
1. Thiago Alves’ weight had something to do with his win over Matt [...]
