(Somebody better tell him that’s not a regulation boxing glove.)
I love guessing games. And it is because I love guessing games that Affliction and the ever-changing story behind their second event is a constant joy for me. So what’s the story now? Will they have a completely new date scheduled? Will they claim to have no date at all? Will they go so far as to name some of the fighters on the card? Or will they shoot down any interesting rumors about who might be fighting?
This time around Affliction VP Tom Atencio is saying the main event will likely be a boxing match, thanks to Golden Boy’s involvement, and MMA will comprise the entirety of the undercard:
“We are going to do a combination show of boxing and MMA. They will run the back end and we will do what we do well.” Atencio says of the show. “It will be between nine and ten fights total. Right now it looks like we are going to do a boxing main event and everything under it will be MMA. It really depends on who we have boxing though. If they are big enough names then absolutely they will be the main event and that is what we have planned right now. Things change though and we have nothing finalized.”
Hold up, Tom. What about Fedor? We all know he’s the cornerstone of this little operation. Is he lacing up the boxing gloves, you know, just to give himself a challenge? Because if not, it sounds like you’re saying either a) Fedor won’t be the main event (and when’s the last time that happened), or b) he won’t be on the card at all.
Option b sounds more realistic, what with Josh Barnett saying he won’t fight Fedor in January and Fedor feeling his annual New Year’s Eve itch coming on. But on that subject, Atencio is uncharacteristically forthcoming.
We have a solid relationship with Fedor. We have extended our deal with Fedor. He and M-1 global are 110% our partners. The rumors are that he is fighting in Japan on New Year’s Eve but I can crush and squash those rumors right and tell you he is not fighting on New Year’s Eve.
Notice how he stops short of saying that Fedor is fighting for him in January. Which would be the next logical step. Looks like all we know right now is that FEDOR WILL RETURN! I saw it on TV, so it must be true.
Oh, and Atencio also wrote the Gegard Mousasi vs. Vitor Belfort report off as a rumor. What’s funny is Mousasi is the one who first spouted off at the mouth about that. According to Atencio, they’ve never even discussed a contract to fight for Affliction. That just figures.
(At least some people still do work for their half a mill, son.)
Before his bout with Andrei Arlovski on Saturday night, Roy Nelson said he wasn’t completely sure who was signing his check. Now we not only know it was Affliction, but we also know that “Big Country” and Arlovski made a combined $580,000 to represent the clotheir-turned-promoter on CBS. The bulk of that money — $500,000 with no win bonus — went to Arlovski for his impressive knockout victory. Even for Affliction, who likes throwing around money almost as much as they love skulls and chains, that’s a hefty price to pay to put one fight on someone else’s show. So was it worth it?
Aside from the exposure for their fighters, Affliction got their ban lifted long enough to throw their logos on the cage and get a few commercials in during the broadcast. As MMA Payout pointed out, that might say more about CBS’ ad sales for this show than it does for Affliction’s arrangement with Elite XC, but either way now there are a few million more people in the world who know about the Andrei Arlovski signature t-shirt line, and every little bit helps.
There’s also the matter of the aggressively vague “Fedor Will Return” ads (was anyone else reminded of the “Gabbo is coming!” ads from The Simpsons?). Beyond heaping more indignity on Tim Sylvia’s loss by pointing out that almost the entire fight can fit in one network TV spot, it does help get the word out to casual fight fans. The only problem is that when you don’t have a date or event to hype, you have to wonder what that’s really worth.
Affliction had a great opportunity with those ads to really advance public knowledge of their MMA organization. Instead they hyped their shirts and failed to tell us when and how we could pay them money to see their marquee fighter perform. I suppose you have to know that information yourself before you can pass it on to others, but isn’t that just one more reason for them to get moving on this January event?
Affliction VP Tom Atencio said before this event that one of his primary motivations was using the Elite XC CBS broadcast as an opportunity to showcase Andrei Arlovski. Hopefully he was happy with what he saw, since that was half a million dollars worth of showcasing. But I have to wonder if it’s going to have the desired effect.
To hardcore MMA fans, the Arlovski-Nelson fight proved two things: 1) Arlovski is still vulnerable on the ground (if not for an odd stand-up he might have found his way into a kimura in the first round), and 2) Arlovski’s striking is every bit as dangerous as it has looked in his last few fights. In other words, we learned nothing new. He beat someone he was supposed to beat. He looked good doing it, and you might even say he made his case as the most talented and explosive fighter on the card, but a knockout win over Nelson wasn’t exactly shocking.
Casual fans — who may know Arlovski from his UFC days and may not — probably didn’t know enough about Roy Nelson to know that Arlovski’s win was still significant. To them, it most likely looked like a muscular werewolf beating up on a fat guy. A knockout always gets people’s attention no matter what, but will they remember that moment in January, when Affliction finally gets a card together?
You have to admire Affliction’s willingness to lend their fighters out, and I’m sure Arlovski and Nelson both appreciated the opportunity to make some cash after the October 11 event was “rescheduled.” But you have to wonder how long Affliction can spend this kind of money without seeing much in return. With economists talking recession, you also have to wonder whether $50 t-shirts won’t be the first thing to get cut from the average person’s budget.
Russia’s Last Emperor vs. The American Maine-iac
June 27, 2008 - 6:47AM
SIGNAL HILL, California (June 26, 2008) – The Cold War might be over, but old rivalries die hard. On July 19th at Honda Center in Anaheim, California, two of the world’s greatest MMA super powers will collide when Russia’s Fedor Emelianenko faces off with America’s [...]
(Tim Sylvia flashes gang sign to warn the other bear cubs at what’s comin’.)
This pic of Big Tim posing with his most recent “kill” has caused a little stir among the forums — some hating him even more, some saying ’so what?’, and the rest using this to lift Fedor to some loftier humane level. Somehow Fedor has been pulled into this, I guess due to his possible fight with Sylvia this summer. Now trust me, I relish mocking The Maine-iac almost as much as I relish binge drinking, but we also have to remember that Fedor enjoys occasionally munching on Fido. You’ll recall when it first hit the news a couple of years ago on Fedor’s trip to South Korea — and it’s a dish he still partakes in.
Apparently, Korean dog soup (”posintang”) is good for improving your stamina. And it’s finger-lickin’ good as a bonus:
“It’s unique. It tastes different from other meats,” Emelianenko was quoted by Yonhap News Agency.
No word if Big Tim ate the bear, but we hear bear meat is nature’s Metamucil. If dog soup’s more your thing, go here for the full recipe. It only requires 100g of boiled dog. I’ve often wondered what my dog, Max, would taste like between two slabs of rye, but I’ll take Fedor’s word for it and stick with caffeine for my stamina.
“…we’ll see what happens. I think it’s going to be an interesting fight. Fedor just fought a pretty tall opponent in Hong Man Choi, so obviously he’s been in that mode of dealing with a guy that size, but I think Tim is a little more seasoned fighter than Hong Man has proved to be. But Hong Man wasn’t easy so it will be interesting to see how Emelianenko deals with him and a pretty good indicator for me, having just fought Tim this last year, as to where I stand and how things might go if I finally get the chance to fight Fedor.”
How hard was it for Randy to swallow this one down? He’s spent the past few months in a battle of words and lawsuits after leaving the UFC mainly so he could be the one to fight Fedor. Now Big Tim is allowed to leave the UFC and almost immediately starts negotiations to fight the Russian heavyweight. Dana White gets to sport his devilish grin for another day…
— The Natural’s wife — fresh off her first MMA win — chatted with FightHype about her win, her future in MMA, and her husband’s future in MMA. But she also attempts to make us feel sorry for her because she has to shoulder the cross of the Couture name.
“I think it would probably be cool to go through this experience without the last name Couture.”
We look forward to the comments from Potato reader, Kim Couture is a c***.
“We’re talking to Joe (Silva - UFC Match Maker), and we’re starting to look for a fight. If you win 4 or 5 fights in a row, you’re pretty much guaranteed a title shot, so I figured maybe Okami or Bisping would be a fun fight for me.”
Would another fight with Anderson Silva turn out any differently than his last meeting with the middleweight god? Of course not. But we’d be into both Okami and Bisping — and wins over both wouldn’t be something the UFC could ignore. Leben is 18-4 overall, but is 3-3 since he met Anderson Silva in the summer of ‘06. He’s got two wins in a row and if he needs 4 or 5 W’s in a row, that’d probably put him in line for a title shot sometime next year. Provided he doesn’t get KTFO by his drunken friends first.
Seriously, whenever I heard that Fedor was a free agent after splitting with M-1 Global, my first thought was that we’ll see Fedor fight Tim Sylvia or Kimbo Slice long before we ever see Fedor vs. Randy Couture.
As much as I would like to see Tim Sylvia win this, it’s not going to happen. In my [...]
— Fedor and Tim Sylvia might be fighting soon. The proposed fight is in talks according to an unnamed source. Nothing is set in stone, but the initial chats have already been initiated. If the fight happens, it will go down in Chicago this coming June, promoted by Adrenaline MMA. So far, Jeff Monson will battle Mike Russow on the same card. Remember that ex-UFC champ Tim Sylvia recently signed with Adrenaline MMA, so his involvement in the talks is a no-brainer.
— “The Lights Out Show” has some choice Bas Rutten quotes from a recent interview…and one in particular is about Kimbo’s ground game. Check it out:
“Of course we’ve been training Kimbo on the ground. He just hasn’t been going there yet…and throwing [Kimbo] up against a submission specialist is going to be trouble [for us]…God knows what Kimbo knows. Nobody knows yet, and we all keep it a big secret. We want to keep it a big secret.”
Lotta’ trash talk floating around the past few days and here are some select dishes from today’s war of words.
— The Sun — which is apparently owned and operated by Chuck Liddell what with all the love they give him — has a piece today detailing The Iceman’s thoughts on Kimbo Slice. In a nutshell, Chuck doesn’t think Kimbo is worthy of the praise. The UFC light heavyweight fighter talks about how Kimbo has yet to be tested in MMA and mentions his first fight against Bo Cantrell — a guy who had already been KO’d twice before in under 30 seconds.
“So is that a real fight? I mean come on! The guy tapped before he hit the matt - he was tapping on the way down!”
“Gannon beat him didn’t he? And how long did Gannon last in the UFC?!!
“Kimbo’s one of those guys who doesn’t have any ground game. He’s training and he’s learning but he’s been built up as such a big star and that’s the thing that bothers me.
“People talk about him like he’s the next great thing when he really hasn’t done anything.
“He’s been built up because of the Internet and him beating a bunch of guys on the street.”
Using Kimbo’s loss to Sean Gannon in a ’street fight’ as a prime example is something that a lot of people resort to. It’s also the same people that say Kimbo has no ground game. But mat work has nothing to do with Kimbo’s loss to Sean Gannon — that fight was a fist fight with an occasional lock-up. The only time it went to the ground was when both fighters were so gassed they collapsed on one another. And who fucking knows if Kimbo has a ground game or not. We’ve never seen him have to use one.
No, it’s not GSP. And it’s not James Thompson or Don Frye. The guy’s name is Shad Smith and he was outed yesterday by The New York Times. The 35-year-old KOTC vet — who is the first openly gay male fighter in MMA — recently spoke to The Times and chatted about growing up fighting in a neighborhood where he and his brothers were the minorities. Sounds like the guy had quite a chip on his shoulder, too:
“I was just mad-dogging everyone” — staring them down — “until somebody said something, and then I’d put my hands up and start fighting.” He said he had 46 counts of assault and battery as a juvenile. “And that’s 46 counts posted on me. Can you imagine how many there actually were?”
And then came the outing:
I asked Smith why he spent so much of his youth looking for trouble. I expected some sort of clichéd, though possibly true, explanation — a difficult childhood or a Napoleon complex. What I didn’t expect him to say was, “You know, bro, the sexual-preference thing.”
Smith is gay, and I know of no other professional fighter who is openly so. “I was always scared that my mom and dad would find out and wouldn’t like me, and my brothers wouldn’t like me,” he said. “I was petrified, because I didn’t want anyone to find out. And I would try to be the toughest person around. That way, no one would suspect, no one would ever say it, no one would think it.”
So there you have it. Since this is such a ridiculously-homophobic industry, I imagine it’ll be hard for Smith to get fighters to agree to matches with him now — especially if they share Brock Lesnar’s 18th Century views. Smith last fought in January, losing to Dave Rivas. He is 9-9-2 overall and is 0-3-1 in his last four.
On that note, here’s a video that is fitting for the topic of this post — and kinda’ sweet.
