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(The only stupid questions are the ones you don’t ask.)
We here at Cage Potato value our loyal readers so much we’ve decided it’s high time we started giving a little something back to you. That’s why we’re introducing our new feature, Ask the Potato.
You have a question? Maybe you want to know who our favorite Diaz brother is (depends how high we are) or who we think would win in a fight between Fedor Emelianenko and a cyborg Grizzly (depends if it’s on New Year’s Eve). Or maybe you even have a non-MMA question for us, something about your parents’ divorce perhaps. It doesn’t matter. Ask us anything.
Just head on over to the Ask the Potato thread in our free, easy-to-use forums and put your question down. If we choose your question, it will be answered on the site before God and your peers, so make it good. To save time, if your question is ‘Why didn’t I win the last caption contest?’ The answer is, because we’re jerks. There, you happy now?
We look forward to reading all your questions and disappointing you with our answers. Huzzah!
Written by admin on October 28th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Ask the Potato and questions and fight and General and Brock Lesnar and Features and MMA.
(What, no odds on whether Gina will make weight?)
If betting odds are any indication of how competitive MMA bouts will turn out to be, expect a lot of one-sided blowouts on Elite XC’s CBS offering this Saturday night. Not that it’s any surprise, really. In fact, with five fights crammed into a two-hour time slot CBS is going to need some quick beatdowns if they don’t want to run way over and have to cut into precious local news time. In any event, Best Fight Odds supplies the most gambler-friendly betting lines for ‘Elite XC: Heat,’ and they break down like this:
Kimbo Slice (-325) vs. Ken Shamrock (+329)
Jake Shields (-550) vs. Paul Daley (+524)
Gina Carano (-550) vs. Kelly Kobald (+525)
Ninja Rua (-196) vs. Benji Radach (+210)
Andrei Arlovski (-428) vs. Roy Nelson (+385)
Some thoughts…
‘I Can’t Believe It’s So Close!’: the line on Radach-Rua seems at first like it’s worth taking a chance on “Razor”, but then there’s that stuff about him not training until five weeks ago. That ought to be enough to scare you away from a bet on Radach. If it’s really true that he had ballooned up to 230 pounds after suffering through more injuries and not hitting the gym, it’s surprising that the line isn’t more lopsided in Rua’s favor. Radach hasn’t fought in over nine months. Five weeks isn’t going to erase that kind of ring rust.
Best Place for That Money You Don’t Want Anymore: So you’re looking at these odds and you can’t help but wonder if that +525 on Kelly Kobald isn’t your key to beating this whole economic crisis thing. You’re saying to yourself, ‘Gina Carano can’t even make weight, plus she’s got all these media obligations. She’s totally overrated and I’m the only one who sees it!’ All right, wise guy. Go ahead and put a bet on Kobald. Then when she gets in the cage and you see why she’s 0-2 in her last two fights maybe you’ll remember that this is Elite XC, where only two fighters matter: Gina and Kimbo. And neither of them gets a fight that isn’t served up on a silver platter.
Underdog Most Likely to Turn a Profit: Of the underdogs on this card, Radach still has the best chance of actually winning, but the long shot you might actually make serious money on is Roy Nelson. Now, I know some in the Potato Nation think this is a walk-through for Arlovski, but it’s not. If Nelson plays to his strengths (submission grappling) and avoids Andrei’s (knocking suckas out), he could pull off the upset. It’s still far from being likely, but that’s why they call it gambling, you wuss. If you need another reason to believe in a “Big Country” win, how about the fact that Affliction is admittedly banking on this as an opportunity to “showcase Arlovski.” If the screwy MMA world has taught us anything, it’s that saying something like that before a fight is the best way to make sure it doesn’t happen.
Written by admin on October 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on betting and CBS and odds and gambling and Roy Nelson and Ninja Rua and Kelly Kobald and Affliction and Elite XC and Andrei Arlovski and Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano and Benji Radach and fight and Features and MMA.
(That’s not the face of a man you want to bet against, is it?)
You can learn a lot about life by gambling on sporting events over the internet. Mostly what you learn is that oddsmakers and bookies are smarter than you 90% of the time. The key is knowing that you know less than the oddsmakers and bookies and working around it (I think Socrates said that). Another thing you can learn is that some people actually bet on preseason football. Seriously. You might as well bury your life savings in the backyard and hope it grows into a money tree. At least that way you know where it is.
Fortunately for the off-shore gambling economy, UFC 87 is a stacked and somewhat unpredictable card, so the temptation to try and win some cash is almost irresistible. Our odds today come from Betus.com, and as always you should read Damon Durante’s MMA Betting for ‘Tards if you still don’t know how odds work.
Georges St. Pierre (-350) vs. Jon Fitch (+250)
It’s not exactly shocking to see GSP as the favorite, but the way people have been jumping on the Fitch bandwagon of late, claiming that he presents all kinds of new problems for the champ, I’m surprised the line isn’t a little closer. But there’s a reason it’s not. GSP is an incredible athlete who seems to be at the height of his powers, both mentally and physically. Fitch’s greatest strength is his wrestling, and you aren’t going to outwrestle GSP. Ask Josh Koscheck and Matt Hughes. You certainly aren’t going to finish him that way, and five rounds worth of trying for takedowns is going to leave you vulnerable to catching knee-in-the-face disease, which is known to be fatal to your title hopes.
A guy with Fitch’s natural ability always has a shot, but not one I’d want to bet on. If you do though, that’s cool. Maybe poverty will be good for you.
Brock Lesnar (-260) vs. Heath Herring (+200)
With as little as we know about Lesnar’s abilities as an MMA fighter and as inconsistent as Herring has been, this one should really be closer to a pick’em. The line has probably moved in favor of Lesnar at least in part because fans know him better and are more willing to throw down a bet on a familiar name. As we’ve seen before, that is not a reliable strategy.
This is so unpredictable you should tread very carefully, but Herring is certainly worth some small action at 2-1 odds. He’s the veteran in this situation and he is, according to Dana White, newly dedicated to his career as a fighter. That’s enough for me, but I’m a reckless son of a bitch.
Kenny Florian (-145) vs. Roger Huerta (+115)
Florian is my pick to win, but this one ought to be a close. The chances of it going to decision are, in a word, good. And when that happens who knows what the judges will say, especially if one of them is Sensei Cecil Peoples. What I’m saying here is that Florian should get the slight edge, which is what you see reflected in the odds.
It’s still worth it to me, though, because Florian’s head is in the right place and he has the kind of skills to finish the fight, whereas Huerta’s chances of doing the same aren’t nearly so strong. I wouldn’t pawn your wedding ring to make the bet or anything, but the blender? Yeah, pawn that sucker. You gave up on those protein shakes months ago.
Manny Gamburyan (-340) vs. Rob Emerson (+240)
What the hell. Does someone want to explain to me why, on such a loaded pay-per-view, Manny Gamburyan and Rob Emerson is a televised bout? This is an Ultimate Fight Night bout if ever there was one. Was there some kind of scheduling error? Did they decide to fill this spot by throwing darts at their roster of lightweights? Anyway, if you want a lock that you will most definitely not profit from, take Gamburyan over Emerson. You’re welcome.
Demian Maia (-300) vs. Jason MacDonald (+220)
Maia should win this. He really, really should. But something about “The Athlete”. He’s been winning fights he wasn’t supposed to (some of them, anyway) since he came into the UFC. I don’t think this will be one of them, but then I didn’t think he’d beat Ed Herman, either, so there you go.
You know something? I say you go for it. I say you bet the house on MacDonald. You need something like that to get you out of this rut. What do you need a house for, anyway? Remember Kane from “Kung Fu”? He didn’t have a house and he seemed happy. Come on. Do it. You pussy.
Written by admin on August 7th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Features and Brock Lesnar and General and odds and UFC 87 and betting and Georges St. Pierre and Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta and UFC and Jon Fitch and Dana White and Heath Herring and MMA.
Click for larger image!
This weekend, I decided to go through all 13,768 comments that CagePotato has received from readers since we launched seven-ish months ago, and classify them into a multi-colored pie-chart. (I also did some totally crazy, badass stuff this weekend. I swear.) The results are above. It’s possible — though very unlikely — that I left out some significant categories, so if you notice any omissions, holler in the comments section.
Written by admin on June 30th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on LOFL and jiu-jitsu and LOL and racism and WFT and Features and Kim Couture and Dana White and UFC and Fedor Emelianenko and Lyoto Machida and Funny Shit and MMA.
(CBD, reppin’ the MTX Audio Fight Team.)
Pretty much everyone had CB Dollaway as a lock to get into the Ultimate Fighter 7 finale, and the former All-American wrestler from Arizona State seemed to have it clinched on last night’s episode, kicking Amir Sadollah’s ass all over the Octagon. And then it happened — an armbar in the third round put a shocking end to the fight, and seemed to derail Dollaway’s dreams of making it into the UFC. Good thing Jesse Taylor can’t handle his liquor, because now the Team Rampage standout has a chance to battle Amir again, this time for all the marbles. Talk about drama. In this exclusive Q+A, Dollaway chats with CagePotato about his rematch with Sadollah, the drawbacks of having Rampage as a coach, Jesse Taylor, and the bullshit one has to endure when living in the TUF house.
***
CAGEPOTATO.COM: What do you think went wrong at the end of your semi-final match with Amir?
CB DOLLAWAY: I think conditioning came into play. We’d been fighting two-round fights previously, and it kind of slipped my mind that it was gonna be a three-round fight. Towards the end of the third round I was just exhausted, and I got sloppy. I wasn’t doing things right, and he was. He kept his composure and caught me in that armbar. I definitely think I was controlling the whole fight, and I believe I was ahead on the scorecards, but you have that mental lapse for a minute and the other guy capitalizes on it.
How confident are you that you’ll have him figured out when you fight him again?
Pretty confident. I believe I took care of the mistakes I made in the first match. I think it should be a similar fight, but with me winning at the end. He’s a hard competitor to finish — I already know that from fighting him once — so I’ve taken measures to make sure I’ll be in great condition.
What did you miss the most while you were trapped in the Ultimate Fighter house?
The freedom, I guess. We were told what to do and when to do it, and we didn’t have access to anything. You can’t call anyone, you can’t get on the Internet and browse around, you can’t go to the mall — you’re just there. In a sense, it’s like being in jail.
We’ve heard a lot about how some of the castmembers were made to look a certain way on the show through editing. Jeremy May says he wasn’t really that much of an asshole. Amir told us the “confessional†scenes involved very leading questions. How accurately do you think you were portrayed on the show?
It seemed like they portrayed me to be a cocky asshole, and I’m not really like that. I just want to be confident and I don’t want to put negative thoughts in my head before I fight. They basically edit out everything you say except for the parts where you’re being confident…
Or when you’re referring to yourself in third-person.
Yeah, I did that twice the whole time I was there, probably, and they put ‘em back to back. And they kind of set you up for that too, they’re like “What does CB Dollaway want right now?†They lead you into things, and you don’t really notice it at the time. They’ll ask you the same question ten different ways to get ten different responses.
Is Jeremy May a monumental asshole in real life?
Yeah. I was one of the guys who kind of held out on thinking he was a prick — he was still on my team so I thought I’d give the guy a chance. But some of things he said and did would blow your mind, and there’s certain things he did that they didn’t even show. One time, he told Dante he was tooling me in sparring — the only time we ever sparred, I kicked him in the leg a few times and he never practiced again, the whole show. So he tells Dante that, and then they asked me about it in the confessional, and I went off. He gets called in there, and then he comes up and he’s like “Did I get drunk and say I was kicking your ass in sparring? Because that never happened.†And I was like “Yeah, I fuckin’ know.â€
How would you rate Rampage as a coach?
I think he’s still got a lot of learning to do as a coach. I don’t know if he was taking it as seriously as Forrest was. Forrest had been there before. His experience on The Ultimate Fighter helped out a lot, and he brought in a much larger coaching staff, which helped give guys more individual time with coaches. We just had Rampage, Juanito [Ibarra] and Zach [Light], and Forrest had like six coaches on his team. Rampage is definitely a successful fighter, but it’s just something that was new to him.
Do you still hang out with anybody from the show?
Yeah, Matt Riddle moved to Arizona, so I see him on a daily basis. Gerald Harris is moving down there, and he’ll be training out of our gym too. And I also keep in touch with Pat Schultz. He’s a cool guy, and I get along with him good.
If you beat Amir, who would you like your next UFC fight to be against?
I’d actually like to fight Jesse Taylor. No matter if I win or if Amir wins, there’s gonna be a lot of people saying neither one of us should have won and Jesse should have. So I think whoever wins needs to take that fight, if Dana wants to make it happen.
Since it’s still so early in your career, have you had to work another job on the side to make ends meet?
I haven’t had to work even before I went on the show, because I’m on the MTX Audio MMA Fight Team. They sponsor us on a monthly basis, and they pay me enough so that I don’t have to work. They’re looking to make fighters better, and they know you have to train twice a day to get to the elite level; they’re providing me with all the tools I need. I can’t do it for this fight, but for every other fight I strictly have MTX on my banner and all my trainers and cornermen will have MTX stuff on. They’re a great company for mixed martial arts.
What do you do for a good time when you’re not training?
I like to go out to Lake Pleasant and Lake Havasu for holidays and stuff. I just picked up a new Honda Waverunner, though I haven’t been able to use it as much as I’d like — I don’t want to risk getting hurt on it right before the fight.
Well, that’s all I have. Is there anything or anybody you want to shout-out before we sign off?
I’d just like to plug LG Sports Marketing, Arizona Combat Sports, and MTX Audio one more time.
(Ben Goldstein)
Written by admin on June 19th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on TUF7 and CB Dollaway and Amir Sadollah and Interview and Features and The Ultimate Fighter and UFC and MMA.
(Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)
Nothing amps up the drama of watching a sporting event like knowing you have a little extra riding on the outcome. UFC 85 is tomorrow, and for me, that “little extra” is the possibility that I’ll be hard-barfing afterwards. For the rest of you, it might be throwing a few 20-spots down on your favorite fighters. If you still have some disposable mad-money left from your economic stimulus check, why not open an account at BetUS.com? And if you don’t know the first thing about what to do when you’re there, read on…
***
Let me first begin by saying thanks to the Bens for allowing me to take time away from eating the souls of virgin gypsy orphans to come on here and try to corrupt the minds of the Cage Taters.
For those of you who are too damn lazy to know who I am, my name is Damon Durante, and I’m the host of BetUS Sports Radio, a series of sports betting-related podcasts. To review: BetUS.com is a sportsbook, I am their radio host.
I cover pretty much every sport you can bet on, but I’ll let you know that football is pretty much the Cat’s Cotton Pajamas around here and is essentially 90% of what we do. I friggin’ love all sports, but MMA is my secret mistress.
I have made it my personal goal to bring MMA as far to the forefront of sports wagering as I can; football might pay the bills, but MMA burns deep in my loins, to which the only soothing balm is more MMA. (There have obviously been others in my industry attempting to capitalize on the popularity of MMA using different tactics, but through sheer lameness they ended up sucking donkey pouch.)
Unfortunately the newness of mixed martial arts as a whole contributes to the betting naivety of most people. I mean we’ve all seen football point spreads since we were kids, but the appearance of money lines for MMA fighters is still seemingly non-existent. Without a doubt the #1 question I get asked is “What the #%*$ does ‘minus 200′ mean?â€
That’s why I’m writing this bad boy; to turn you all into degenerate gambling bastards.
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Written by admin on June 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on sports and sportsbook and wagering and BetUS.com and gambling and Commentary and Features and betting and MMA.
(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.
What will be the “Fight of the Night”?
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Written by admin on June 5th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on General and Features and Commentary and MMA.
(Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)
Your long wait for MMA on network television has finally ended. It’s not pay-per-view, it’s not YouTube, it’s CBS, bitches. My fellow MMAholics, we done came up. Settle in, grab yourself a cold one, and prepare for your world to be changed forever — and that’s just the Busta Rhymes performance!
Click more to get your liveblog on. Refresh every few minutes for the latest witty remarks and harmful generalizations. Hit up the forums to share your precious opinion with the rest of the Potato Nation.
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Written by admin on May 31st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on liveblog and General and Features and MMA.
(BG)
(BF)
Remember when you were a kid and your parents would argue and it was really loud and you got scared so you went to hide under the bed and cry until it was over? This is kind of like that. Except instead of your parents it’s Ben Goldstein and Ben Fowlkes, the two editors of Cage Potato, and we actually care about you. We’re still not coming to your Little League games, though.
Could James Thompson rain on the Kimbo Slice hype parade? If so, what then?
Fowlkes: Look, we all know Elite XC didn’t make this fight because they want to be in the James Thompson business. They brought him in because he’s knockout fodder, and also because he’s big and scary looking and to the average sports fan he seems like a monster. Kimbo beats him, then they sell Kimbo as a monster slayer. That’s their plan, no doubt about it.
That said, a guy like Thompson should never be completely counted out. He hasn’t looked good lately. This much is true. But when you’re 6′5″, and hovering in the 265 region, you’re never more than one good punch or knee away from victory. Even so, I have hard time imagining him winning this. His flash chin, his reliance on aggression over technique, that spells trouble.
If he were to win, well, Gary Shaw would cry. That’s the first thing that would happen. Then Elite XC would immediately begin hyping a lukewarm rematch. Basically, they’d lose a lot of steam. Almost all their steam, to the point where their steam levels would be dangerously low. Which is why Shaw will do anything short of leaping into the cage himself to stop it from happening.
Goldstein: It’s kind of a moot point considering there’s absolutely no way in hell that the Colossus will win this fight. MMA pundits talk about Thompson’s need to take the action to the ground against Kimbo — but since when was Thompson ever skilled on the ground? Just because Slice is a novice in MMA, it’s automatically assumed that Thompson’s jiu-jitsu is far superior? His brief stint at Xtreme Couture gave us hope that he’d be rounding out his game, but now he’s back in his comfort zone, working out at an outfit with the sadly appropriate name “London Street Fighters.â€
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Written by admin on May 30th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on General and Features and Commentary and MMA.
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