(All that wisdom, and no primetime TV slot on which to garble it…yet.)
Right away we knew that Al “Stankie” Stankiewicz (aka: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s boxing coach) had a certain magic about him. From his crazy motivational sayings to his semi-coherent ramblings about sardines, the man is straight up charismatic. But the more stories about him that trickle out, the more it’s starting to seem like he is being criminally underused in this season of The Ultimate Fighter. The latest Stank-tastic tale comes from TUF 8 cast member Ryan Bader, who paints a portrait of Stank as a lovable old card getting the most out of his affiliation with Nogueira:
I have a funny story about Al Stankie, who is our older boxing coach. After practice the coaches would go grab something to eat — most of the time without showering and in full Team Nogueira garb, which (I’m pretty sure) they were not supposed to be doing. Stankie had on a rashguard, full TapouT velour red warm-up, a TapouT beanie and a couple long gold chains. They went to The Palms to watch the Lakers vs. Celtics game. Stankie is a big Lakers fan, and when a Celtics fan expressed some joy about his team scoring, Stankie walked over and slapped the guy — with all of our Brazilian coaches looking on in horror. Before the other coaches could grab him, he yelled out, “I am with the heavyweight champion of the world! You want some?” Those of us that saw this understood that this could be Junie’s relative, and maybe that is why he wasn’t kicked off the show yet. Stankie is a great man, and Spike TV should give him his own show.
There are many stories that involve Stankie that I will try to give to you each week. We would all gather around Dan Valverde, one of the assistant coaches, and he would tell us the stories of what Stankie did over the weekend.
Bader also described Stankie as “drunk and funny as ever” when he and Nogueira showed up at the house to try and squash the prank war, which might at least partially explain the disrespect shown by many of the Team Mir fighters.
As for the suggestion that Spike TV should give Stankie his own show, we’re all for it. The fact that Brooke Hogan has her own show and Stankie doesn’t, well, let’s just say it’s a sign that this nation has lost its way.
As you probably already know, Rachelle Leah, former Octagon girl and current host of UFC All Access, appears on the cover of November’s Playboy. This isn’t related to the sport of MMA in any real way, but it’s an excuse to plaster her picture all over the place so no one is really complaining. Except there’s something weird going on here.
Below are excerpts from a Yahoo! MMA story on Leah, a UFC.com story on her, and the official press release from Playboy. Two of those organizations are expected to shamelessly push this story on us. One is…not expected to do that. See if you can tell which is which without cheating:
Excerpt A:
Rachelle was an ordinary Las Vegas girl, studying to be a paramedic while doing some modeling on the side when her photo was taken at a boxing match and posted on the web. Soon after, that photo was discovered by the UFC and she was gracefully strutting around the 8-sided cage as an official Octagon Girl.
Despite promising never to climb into The Octagon for a match herself, Rachelle admits to being attracted to the kind of raw energy and excitement found at a UFC fight. “Any extreme sport is pretty much up my alley,” explains Rachelle. “I like to dirt-bike. I wakeboard in the summer. I snowboard in the winter. I skateboard—I do it all.”
Excerpt B:
Yeah, she’s Playboy’s November cover girl, which will hit newsstands on Friday. She was the UFC’s most popular octagon girl and she just signed a deal as a spokesmodel with Anheuser-Busch. While none of those jobs require a degree from Harvard, it’s selling Leah short to believe she’s making a living solely from her looks.
She is brash and thoughtful and introspective and witty and plenty crafty. She uses her share of coarse language, her conversation invariably turns to sports and, most significantly, guys, she loves – absolutely loves – mixed martial arts.
Excerpt C:
Playboy is a big deal, and has been home to pictorials from the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Pamela Anderson to Cindy Crawford and Kim Kardashian. So when the offer to appear in the magazine (and on the cover) was presented to the 24-year old model and actress, it was something that she took very seriously.
“The main reason I did it was because to be on the cover of Playboy is a huge honor,” she said. “And I’m open-minded; I’m not the type of girl that’s like ‘oh my God, you should never be nude.’ But I am the type of girl that says you should never be nude if it’s not done right, and I knew that it was going to be done right.”
So what’s the point, you ask? Nothing. Just seems interesting that while there are two companies that are poised to benefit from a UFC spokesmodel appearing in Playboy, there are three very similar fluff pieces written about it.
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.
Maybe you didn’t know this, but notoriously wrong MMA judge Cecil Peoples is also Sensei Cecil Peoples. Judging by the way he introduces himself in this video, it seems like maybe he didn’t know it either until recently. Well, good news. Now he knows, and he’s ready to kick some knowledge on his official website.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Mr. Peoples, he’s the judge who is generally most likely to screw up any given decision. The phrase, “Judge Cecil People scores the bout,” is the kind of thing to make MMA fighters who think they have won a clear-cut decision instantly paranoid.
Strange, considering his website identifies him as “the foremost Kick Boxing expert in the United States”. And if that’s not enough of a top-notch pedigree for you, he also has a black belt in karate! How could a guy like that possibly get it wrong?
Via Fightlinker: Beleaguered ref Dan Miragliotta mistakes Jess Liaudin for Paul Taylor at the end of their UFC 85 undercard fight. Poor guy really picked the wrong month to quit sniffing glue…
Not only is Nate Diaz one of the most exciting lightweights in the UFC, but the t-shirt designs on his website kick more ass than a no-hands triangle choke with double “F-you” fingers. If you’re a Diaz fan, you should definitely order one to cover your torso — or, you can win one in today’s caption contest. The two CagePotato readers who provide the best captions to the photo below will win a t-shirt of their choice from NathanDiaz.com. All entries must be submitted to the comments section of this post by Monday at 2 p.m. ET. Good luck out there, and always, always represent your area code.
Whoa…Rampage has the ability to grow hair? And he’s doing it because he has an audition to play B.A. Baracus in a John Singleton re-make of The A-Team? Consider our minds blown. Big ups to Jimmy for continuing to bring MMA fighters to his couch.
