“It’s an entirely different type of fight [against Heath Herring and not Mark Coleman]. We’re just getting ready for an all-around game now…. It’s easy to work with a guy like [Lesnar who is athletic and has desire and a willingness to learn]. He has a great work ethic and he’s a really fast learner.”
Greg Nelson — the mixed martial arts trainer for Brock Lesnar — is out to prove that raw athleticism, power and hunger can trump experience when his fighter takes on veteran Heath Herring at UFC 87: “Seek and Destroy” at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on August 9. Lesnar was originally booked to take on Coleman — a UFC Hall of Famer — before he had to withdraw because of injury. Interesting fight.
There is plenty to talk about after Elite XC: “Return of the King” last night.
There were break out performances by up-and-comers with loads of talent, a dominating beat down from the hands of a former champ, the methodical dissection of Muhsin Corrbrey by Nick Diaz, and there was, of course, the return of the king.
And there will certainly be a lot more in the coming months … especially with the picture above snapped by the good folks over at CombatLifestyle.com.
“Don’t be scared, homey.”
The bad blood between champion KJ Noons and Nick Diaz, which stemmed from their fight last November, came to a boil last night as the two — along with their entourages — got into a post-event scuffle complete with middle fingers, name calling and a lot of pushing and shoving.
A rematch between the two at some point in the near future is a lock.
Check out some of the fighter thoughts and quotes from all the main card winners on last night’s action and drama at the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii:
Lightweight Champion KJ Noons:
“I’m not sure what happened or who started what, but I feel bad for Yves, a class act who trained really hard for this fight. Yves caught me, rocked me, but once I knocked him down I knew I had to go in and finish it…. Nick has no class, he’s a bum, a piece of (expletive) and he and his team disrespected my family and I with their gestures and trash talk and tried to upstage our fight. I hope they make the fight with Diaz right here at the Blaisdell, but wherever it is, I will be ready. I’m the champion and have the EliteXC belt. I’ll fight anybody. I didn’t see his fight but if they say Nick deserves a rematch, then we can fight and I’ll beat him again – if he can make 160 pounds.’
Nick Diaz:
“I’m sorry about what happened in the cage afterward, but I didn’t start it. His guys were talking (expletive) to us. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with my fight; in fact, I am pretty disappointed. This was one of my worst fights. I felt slow. I hated coming in that heavy. I worked very hard to cut the weight, but it just wouldn’t come off. I will and can still make 160 pounds and will fight KJ any time, any place. I’ll fight anybody in the world who thinks they are better than me or who is considered better than me.”
Murilo “Ninja” Rua:
“I really wanted to prove a point and that was to win by knockout and not submission. This guy did a lot of talking; I know he was trying to get to me. So when I had him down, I really wanted to hurt him. I want to get back the EliteXC belt and will fight anybody to do so. I get criticized by people who don’t think I have good striking skills so I’m happy to win the way I did. This fight was dedicated to my baby boy who is due in late August or early September.”
Dave “Blueberry Muffin” Herman:
“I didn’t really know what to expect. Nothing he did fazed me. I’m thrilled to get the win and especially happy to get the knockout. But I think I’m going to dump my ‘Pee Wee” nickname and go with ‘Blueberry Muffin’ from now on. I love blueberry muffins and my mom, Karen, makes the best.”
Rafael Feijao:
“This is the kind of impressive performance that I wanted, but I still have more to show. The ref did his job. If he didn’t stop it when he did I’d still be throwing punches. He got me with a good shot at the start but I get hit like that in training all the time. I felt strong. Training with Anderson and the guys I do is the best thing to ever to happen to me. Whether it’s a knockout or not, as long as I win I’m happy. I’m ready to fight anybody at 205 pounds.”
For results from last night’s Elite XC: “Return of the King” show on Showtime click here.
When launching Adrenaline MMA, Monte Cox spoke of his plan to model the promotion on the Bay Area power Strikeforce. One of the key components of success mentioned by Monte was a strong showing at the gate, but judging by the early numbers the promotion seems to still have a ways to go to measure up to Scott Coker's creation from a business perspective.
MMAJunkie's Steve Sievert reports attendance of around 2,000 while Sherdog is a little more generous with an estimate of 2,500. Either number represents a weak gate for such a large metro area. Cox commented to MMAJunkie:
"I talked to other promoters in music and other things, and everything seems to be down right now," he said. "Last time I did a show here, we had people driving 100 to a 150 miles. We didn't get that tonight. It's hard. A 150 now is costing you 70 bucks, and I think people factor that in. Plus, the Quad Cities, where we normally draw really well from, is flooded. We just didn't have a lot of things go our way."
With no big stars on the card the payroll was likely on the low side, but with that level of attendance I doubt the card was profitable. While the show had several local fighters on the card, the show lacked a mainstream name or charismatic fighter to break through to a larger audience. Strikeforce has been lucky in that respect in that they have two charismatic guys in Cung Le and Frank Shamrock that both have strong local ties from which to draw strong crowds. Next week's card being head lined by Gilbert Melendez should be an interesting test of how well Strikeforce can draw without either of their big two on the card.
The September card being put on by Adrenaline will face much more pressure at the gate. On that card will be Adrenaline's two big ticket signings, Tim Sylvia and Ben Rothwell. Rothwell is set to make $200,000 for his Adrenaline fights and one has to believe that Sylvia is making somewhere slightly north of that, so right there you are looking at a half a million on payroll. If you are going to bring in half way decent names to face these two, you are looking at probably another 100 grand and then you have to fill out the undercard as well. Adrenaline will have to have a close to capacity crowd to break even with those kind of salaries being thrown around.
This was a strong show with good pacing, much better than the CBS debut which seemed to drag. EliteXC has been criticized for too much one sided booking with its prospects, but I like the approach. The goal right now should be establishing its young stars and grooming them for matches that mean something.
Ideally, the rest of this year should be spent building stars through careful booking and establishing credible champions. Then in 2009, with the benefit of smart booking and network television exposure, ideally the company will be in a position to run pay-per-view which is the key to its financial success at this point. This was a fun, easy to watch, entertaining show, but most importantly it left me excited about several potential match-ups which is exactly what the product should do.
Rafael Feijao and Dave Herman both looked like stars and for my money I would have rather featured them the CBS broadcast that Brett Rogers and/or Joe Villasenor-Phil Baroni. KJ Noons was also very impressive. Hopefully, he'll be available for the third CBS show. Nick Diaz gave an underwhelming performance in the cage, but brought real heat to the build-up for a rematch with Noons.
My only complaint about the show was Bill Goldberg. I've never completely understood the idea of using Goldberg to start with, but previously he's seemed tolerantly ineffective. Last night he was an actual distraction to the broadcast. I'm not sure what his role should be, but it shouldn't be in the ring as an interviewer. That job is about putting the talent over and Goldberg, by his mannerism and sheer size, often trivializes the talent.
The biggest news of the night was the official announcement of a 7/26 return date on CBS. Robbie Lawler-Scott Smith II will headline, but what will be underneath is anyone's guess. All reports are that this is sooner than EXC wanted to come back, but everybody's gotta serve somebody and CBS is undoubtedly EXC's master (as principle financial backer and television partner) at this point in the game.
It's hard to imagine the second show putting up numbers in the same ballpark as the first thanks to a host of factors (less time to promote, novelty lessened, stars not available), but it could be a blessing. CBS should be willing to let them breath (i.e. not worry so much about the numbers) given those factors which would give EXC a chance to really promote the rumored third show in October.
That should start with announcing the date and featured bouts on the July broadcast. The early direction for October looks like Kimbo-Rogers and Carano fighting to establish a women's champion. I don't like Rogers as an opponent for Kimbo, but that genie may be out of the bottle at this point. KJ Noons v. Nick Diaz is the hottest match they have at this point coming off last night's pull apart and should be on CBS.
Elyse over at GringaBJJ read our piece from a couple of days ago on the marketing of MMA, and elaborated on the argument as it relates to women's MMA
.....it will continue to be impossible for fans or casual viewers to accept women's MMA so long as the marketing includes the ever-present ring girls. Every major promotion devotes a main page on their website to displaying the ring girls. Always scantily clad, usually artificially enhanced, they are the epitome of objectification. How can we expect people to see women fighters as deserving respect, attention, and equal prize money, no matter how talented or how well matched their fights are?
The ring card girl is certainly a tired tradition from boxing that carried over into MMA. If you are going to be EliteXC and forward women's MMA as legitimate, it is hard to ignore the mixed message of the dance teams and ring card girls that are prevalent at most of their shows. That said, I can't come down but so hard on Shaw and company. Unlike industry leader UFC, they aren't completely ignoring the women's facet of MMA and treating them only as nice decoration.
Melvin Manhoef def. Kazushi Sakuraba via TKO (strikes), 1:50 of round 1
Ronaldo Souza def. Jason Miller via unanimous decision
Zelg Galesic def. Taei Kin via TKO (injury), 1:05 of round 1
Gegard Mousasi def. Dong Sik Yoon via unanimous decision
Hideo Tokoro def. Darren Uyenoyama via unanimous decision
Ralek Gracie def. Alavutdin Gadzhiev via submission (armbar), 3:02 of round 1
Alistair Overeem def. Tae Hyun Lee via KO, 0:36 of round 1
Shinya Aoki def. Katsuhiko Nagata via submission (gogoplata…FROM THE TOP!![?]!), 5:12 of round 1
If you’re a fan of quick, one-sided demolitions, last night’s EliteXC: Return of the King card didn’t disappoint. In the main event, lightweight champ KJ Noons and top contender Yves Edwards sparred for the first thirty seconds of their bout before Noons caught Edwards with a jaw-punch that sent him to the mat. Noons leaped onto Edwards and started raining down blows like a man possessed by both Satan and PCP; the ref called it at the 48-second mark, and a dazed Edwards was left wondering what the hell had just happened.
Following the match, Nick Diaz — who weighed in a full nine pounds over his 160-pound limit for his earlier match against Mushin Corbbrey — stepped into the cage to confront the man who’d handed him his last loss at EliteXC: Renegade last November. In an apparent attempt to hype a re-match with Noons, Diaz (along with his brother Nate) mouthed off to Noons and stuck his middle fingers into the faces of Noons and his father. The Noonses lunged at the Diazes, but security intervened before things got out of hand. Amid a chorus of boos, Nick and Nate left the cage, their beloved middle fingers extended toward the crowd.
Diaz certainly had no reason to be cocky. Besides coming into the fight a full weight-class over Corbbrey (which Diaz is trying to blame on the ocean),
Diaz needed nearly all of the three scheduled rounds to put away an outmatched, outsized Corbbrey, which he finally did via strikes from the mount.
In other action, Murilo “Ninja” Rua made Tony Bonello pay for a seriously ill-advised guard-pull at the beginning of their match, dropping elbows and punches from the top until the fight was called, while Icon Sport middleweight champion Kala Kolohe Hose was quickly choked out in a non-title match by King of the Cage/Freestyle Cage Fighting vet Robert “Bubba” McDaniel. Full results are below, and a couple vids are after the jump, courtesy of MMAScraps.
MAIN CARD
K.J. Noons def. Yves Edwards via TKO, 0:48 of round 1
Nick Diaz def. Muhsin Corbbrey via TKO, 3:59 of round 3
Murilo Rua def. Tony Bonello via TKO, 3:16 of round 1
Dave Herman def. Ron Waterman via TKO, 2:19 of round 1
Rafael Feijao def. Wayne Cole via TKO, 2:47 of round 1
UNDERCARD
P.J. Dean and Dean Lista fought to a draw
Mike Aina def. Kaleo Kwan via unanimous decision
Mark Oshiro def. Chris Willems via submission (triangle choke), 2:12 of round 1
Robert McDaniel def. Kala Kolohe via submission (rear naked choke), 0:41 of round one
Last night’s EliteXC “Return of the King” proved to be the “Return of the quick, one-sided fight card.”
Much like the promotion’s February 16 “Street Certified” event and its March 21 ShoXC card, last night’s show featured a multitude of lopsided fights with fast finishes. If you dislike fights that go to a decision and love [...]
I know most people aren’t interested in my personal drama, and if that’s the case, don’t bother to click below and read further.
But for those looking for an update about my wife, it’s after the jump and I don’t have a happy ending to offer anyone.
