I can’t help but wonder whose idea it was to have new WEC featherweight champ Mike Brown on Inside MMA and then ask the panel — which consisted of Brown, Dave "Pee Wee" Herman, and oddsmaker Nick Kalikas — who the best fighter in the WEC is. You know Brown’s going to say it’s him, and you also know the other two guys are going to want to say it’s Urijah Faber, thus implying that Brown got lucky when he beat Faber for the belt at WEC 36. And you know that when this happens it will create a palpably uncomfortable situation for everyone. And yet they do it anyway.
Say what you will, I have no choice but to admire that move. It’s kind of a mini ethics test, because we’d know if one of them said Brown it would only be because he was sitting a few feet away and not because they really believed it. But honesty ruled the day, and as usually happens in real life, awkwardness followed with it.
After the jump, a special surprise from the bleachers at UFC 91.
Well that didn’t take long. Jon Fitch is once again a UFC fighter, and will still fight Akihiro Gono at UFC 94, as planned. Apparently all it took was a conversation with Lorenzo Fertitta. MMA Rated has the scoop:
“Communication kind of broke down with Dana (White) so we talked with Lorenzo,” Fitch told MMARated. “(I) just got off the phone with him and we came to an agreement. We’re going to move ahead and I’ll be back in the UFC. We’re going to sign off on the video game and I’m back. It was never even about the agreement or the contract. It was the approach that we felt Dana was being a little bit hot-headed and was threatening us right off the bat. It didn’t seem like a professional way of doing things.”
Cooler heads, as they say, have prevailed. Should the ease with which this was resolved once Fitch and his management team were able to speak with someone who wasn’t Dana White perhaps tell us something? Threatening, bullying, saying things in the media such as “[Expletive] them. All of them, every last [expletive] one of them,” maybe that’s the kind of thing that doesn’t help negotiations with one’s employees, who one claims to want to be “partners” with. Thankfully Lorenzo Fertitta is on board to smooth things over.
Now you have to wonder, what lesson will Dana White take from this? Fitch did sign the contract. The UFC got what they wanted. Will White now be convinced that he can get what he wants if he plays good cop, bad cop with Lorenzo? Or will he see that sometimes talking things over is preferable to flying off the handle? Let’s hope it’s the latter. Right now Lorenzo is looking like Michael Corleone and Dana is looking like Sonny. And we all remember what happened to Sonny.
As much as it looked like it might never happen at times, Affliction: Day of Reckoning is going on sale this week. The online presale started today and tickets officially go on sale Wednesday for the January 24 event. They’ve even added more fights than just the Fedor Emelianenko-Andrei Arlvoski bout in some crazy attempt to entice people by telling them what they’re actually paying for.
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Vladimir Matyushenko
Jay Hieron vs. Jason High
Mark Hominick vs. LC Davis
Albert Rios vs. Antonio Duarte
Brett Cooper vs. TBA
Paul Buentello vs. Kiril “Baby Fedor” Sidellnikov
Okay, so it’s not exactly the stacked card they debuted with, though there are still some interesting TBA’s that could add some zing. Note that even though Barnett needs an opponent, we still don’t see Tim Sylvia’s overpriced ass on there. Can’t say I blame them.
- One man who won’t be sorry to see California State Athletic Commissioner Armando Garcia go is Sean Sherk, who still feels like he got a raw deal on his steroid case thanks to Garcia and his bungling of the appeals process. Sherk told MMA Rated that he “knew the guy had some issues” that would lead to his eventual removal, and now Sherk’s “glad to see that is finally taking place.” The sad irony is that it most likely wasn’t Garcia’s incompetence that got him in trouble so much as his ill-fated inter-office romance.
- Guess which over-stimulated, hyperbolic UFC announcer will be celebrating his 100th broadcast at UFC 91 on Saturday night? Did you guess Mike Goldberg? Damn, you’re good. UFC.com has an interesting article that looks at how Goldie went from some dude in front of a microphone who knew nothing about MMA to some dude in front of a microphone who is at least better than Mauro Ranallo. The best part of the article is hearing it all straight from Goldberg, who apparently loves mixing metaphors even when he’s not working. On why he stuck with the UFC even after the WWE made him a lucrative offer:
I can equate it to maybe playing for the Cincinnati Bengals and being 3-13 and 4-12, and finally you think you’ve got a team that might make it to the postseason. Do you bail and go to the Patriots or 49ers at that point, or do you say ‘the ship is sailing and is about to find a really cool island - do I want to jump off that ship now or see where it’s gonna land?’
Wait, are we still talking about the UFC?
- And finally, Tonya Evinger knows what people have been saying about her on the internet. After we posted pictures of her partying it up with Gina Carano, word got back to Evinger and she sounds none too pleased, telling Steve Cofield: “A lot of people are saying some mean ass stuff up there. Personally it don’t hurt my feelings but if I find out who’s saying it I’m going to punch them in the face.”
For the record, Tonya, we found the pictures hilarious (no matter what our commenters say). We’d even rather have a drink or twelve with you than with Gina. Not only do you seem like more fun, but you might punch us in the face. And we might like it.
“Countdown to UFC 91″ airs tonight on Spike TV at 11 pm EST/PST. In this brief taste we get an idea of what the storyline between Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar is going to be, but somehow it still feels like less than an all-out promotional blitz for an event Dana White predicted would top one million pay-per-view buys. Maybe they think this one sells itself. Maybe they think the wrestling fans will come out in droves to buy this one like they never have before. Maybe they finally realized that the undercard is caught somewhere between mediocre and painfully weak, and they’re already thinking about hyping UFC 92.
After the jump, Matt Lindland stops by to give his analysis of the Couture-Lesnar matchup.
(Brock Lesnar will get his gross sweat all over you. Look out, Randy.)
Brock Lesnar is preparing for Randy Couture with his jiu-jitsu coach Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros, who as you might recall was the man to help Lesnar figure out the mystery of the kneebar after his loss to Frank Mir. Comprido tells Graciemag.com that Lesnar is training at a new academy, mixing it up with world class submissions guys like himself and decorated wrestlers like Cole Konrad. As for a prediction, Comprido isn’t shy:
“I know Couture is a very strategic fighter, but I believe Brock will take this fight in the first round.”
I’d rather fight Brock than Randy. Randy has been dealing with MMA for a lot longer and he knows how to fight off submissions to a greater degree than Brock does. Brock’s only trained for two or three years. I’ve been doing it a lot longer.
But Randy’s ability to stop my submissions would be about the same as my ability to stop his takedowns. He’s been wrestling for 18 years - I’ve been doing martial arts since I was four, so I’ve been practicing for 25 years. For him to catch up on the submissions game is going to be one heck of a feat.
That’s all very interesting, Frank. But maybe you should think about how you’re going to get past Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira first.
(Either on his way to corner a fighter or commit a break-in. You just never know.)
All day long I’ve been waiting to hear details on exactly what combination of prescription drugs, nachos, and crippling depression was responsible for Paulo Filho showing up seven pounds overweight and then fighting like a bored schizophrenic at last night’s WEC. Judging by his remarks to Tatame, however, it sounds as if Filho is going to try and play this one off as nothing more than a bad night after a bad training camp:
“What can I do, it’s sad… The fact is that I have no excuses, he (Sonnen) went there and did his job to neutralize me and that’s what happened, he did the right job and he has all merits… It was good to give me a new spirit.”
A new spirit? I guess that’s a start. The old one looked pretty worn out, if not non-existent. As far as how he’s planning to turn things around, Filho seems to think the answer consists of moving to Los Angeles and eventually going up a weight class.
“Here will be good, everybody is coming here and that’s because it works. At Brazil we hadn’t a good training camp, and here I believe we’ll have a high level training. The loss isn’t good, but that’s good to learn. We need more focus, responsibility, and the weight is a problem… What happened yesterday we’ll forget and start all over again. We’ll train here and get our rematch with Sonnen, and then go to light-heavyweight division.”
Oh great, a rematch. That’s just what we all want to see after last night’s odd snoozer of a fight. Going up to light heavyweight might be a decent idea, but at 5′9″ Filho is far from your typical 205-pounder. The better approach might be to stay at middleweight and simply become more disciplined with his diet and training.
Or just moving to L.A. and calling it good. I’m sure that will fix things.
We all know why Brock Lesnar deals with accusations and insinuations about steroid use. It’s because he’s a white dude. Right? Simply couldn’t be any other explanation. At least that’s what he told Pro MMA Radio:
“I’ve been accused of using steroids my entire life, probably since the tenth grade in high school… I’ve never failed a drug test. Now if I was a black guy and I looked the way I do would I get asked this question a 100 times? I just happen to be a white guy that has some great genetics, so I guess that puts a bullseye on me… I’m a white dude that’s shredded and you don’t see a lot of it — a guy that’s walking around that looks like me.”
I feel silly even typing this, but I think Brock Lesnar is oversimplifying this issue. I kind of see his point. Almost. But in answer to his question, if he was a 280-pound black man who was a former pro wrestler and who looked like an action figure, I tend to think that he would still get roughly the same amount of steroid questions. Does the name Bob Sapp sound familiar?
If Brock is tired of being asked about steroids, I have bad news for him. Unless he suddenly starts to resemble a normal human being it isn’t likely to stop. Perhaps his piles of money will console him.
