Here’s a little taste of Brock Lesnar’s appearance on ESPN’s E:60 tonight at 7 pm EST (which is like, now). The interview seems to be taking place in a barn for some reason. I’m sure it will all make sense when we see the whole thing. In other news…
- Luke Cummo was arrested and charged with “driving while impaired with drugs” in Lynbrook, New York last week. He wasn’t drunk, but was reportedly tested for a drug that officials would not name. Fightlinker says Cummo claimed, at least briefly, that he got a contact high from being in a room full of people smoking pot, and this was exacerbated by eating a bunch of chicken wings. Seriously. He’s pleaded not guilty, and we really hope he decides to represent himself in this case because that would be awesome.
- Matt Hughes says on his website that he talked to UFC matchmaker Joe Silva this week and he may finally get his shot at Matt Serra in April. He also went bowhunting and bagged a deer.
- The UFC sent out a press release today officially announcing three fights for the stacked UFC 92 event on Dec. 27. As expected, Rashad Evans/Forrest Griffin, Wanderlei Silva/”Rampage” Jackson, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira/Frank Mir are on tap. Said Evans:
“Forrest fights from the heart just like me, and everyone underestimates Forrest until they get in there with him, like me. I think he and I are going to be like Ali vs. Frazier – this will be the first time we meet, but it won’t be the last, so I want to set the precedent.”
“(UFC CEO) Lorenzo (Fertitta), (UFC matchmaker) Joe (Silva) and I got together and thought yeah, he deserves the title shot,” White said. “How could you say, ‘No, he doesn’t deserve the shot’ after [the Liddell fight]?”
White said he had a date in mind but wouldn’t share it until the organization has the opportunity to announce some other upcoming cards.
Sugar Rashad’s stunning upset increased his overall record to 12-0-1 (7-0-1 in the UFC). I wouldn’t argue that Evans deserves a shot at the belt more than the winner of the (postponed? nixed completely?) fight between Lyoto Machida and Thiago Silva, but timing is certainly working in his favor; Griffin needs a title defense, and Evans is available. Unfortunately, the UFC’s hope of a big money fight between Chuck and Forrest is now up in smoke, and they’ll have to put in major effort to convince fans that a title scrap between two TUF winners is equally worth buying. After his nipple-tweaking, pop-n-locking, Fred Sanford-imitating ring antics last night, Evans’s likeability is still a big question mark.
(Someone’s excited by Rashad’s performance, and someone else is just very bored.)
The UFC has officially announced the previously-rumored Chuck Liddell-Rashad Evans bout for UFC 88 in Atlanta, Ga. on September 8. In an email blast sent out today they played up the fact that it will be the UFC’s first foray into Atlanta, which will no doubt be referred to as “Hot-lanta” by Mike Goldberg at least twice during the live broadcast of the event.
Call me crazy, but this main event sounds better and better. “The Iceman” may have slowed a step or two, but one thing he can still do is avoid a takedown and get right back up if you do manage to put him down.
If Evans can get Liddell to the mat and beat him there, it will be hard to ignore him in the light heavyweight picture. If he decides to stand and bang with Liddell and somehow manages to win that way, well, then either Liddell will have proven that he’s ready for retirement or the world as we know it will have changed forever. There’s a good chance to laws of gravity might even fail if that happens, so you might want to tie down some your valuables, just in case.
- In other UFC news, Evan Tanner tells Thomas Gerbasi from UFC.com that he’s a poet or artist or something:
“I always thought of myself as the poet, the writer, or the philosopher – I never thought of myself as a fighter,” he chuckles. “But here I am. I always had an idea of the flow of my life, but not exactly what I would be doing day to day. And fighting definitely wasn’t something I thought I’d be doing.”
…
“It sounds contradictory because I’m a free spirit and I’ve kinda bounced around, but I always had an overall plan or idea of the flow of my life,” he said. “Let’s say your life’s a work of art, a great picture; everything I’ve done has been a brush stroke on what will hopefully be a great work of art. Even the bad times, the crazy times, I don’t regret a thing. – it’s all absolutely necessary to create this masterpiece.”
Behold, the Tao of Tanner. It’s great to compare your life to a brilliant work of art, but what about the people whose lives are obviously horrible? Are they just like really bad pieces of art that no one enjoys, even the artist?
Actually, I guess that makes sense. There are way more terrible works of art than there are great ones, and there are probably more people who hate their lives than love them. I guess what I’m saying here is that Tanner’s art-life analogy holds up. I’m as shocked as you are.
The UFC officially announced Monday afternoon that UFC 88 is scheduled to take place on Saturday, September 6 at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
The promotion has also announced that a light heavyweight bout between Chuck Liddell and Rashad Evans will headline the event. The two had been scheduled to fight on June 7 in [...]
Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans is being talked about for the main event for UFC 88 in Atlanta Georgia. This fight was the second main event fight for recently passed UFC 85, but both Liddell and Evans pulled out at separate times due to injury. Evans and Liddell have both inactive for a healthy chunk of time (Liddell six months, Evans nine months).
Why not the Shogun-Chuck fight that was originally slated for UFC 85, it appears that Shogun will still be out after re-injuring his knee, till the end of 2008. With the UFC coming to one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country (~5 million) the UFC will be looking for a major fight event. With Liddell being one of the biggest draws the UFC has the fight makes good economic sense. However not a great deal of fanfare followed the original announcement of this fight with Liddell heavily favored over Evans. Also the conspiracy theorists will claim that the UFC aka. Dana White is trying to get Liddell a title shot as soon as possible
Another change in the rollercoaster ride that is UFC 85: Bedlam.
UFC.com has announced that TUF 2 heavyweight winner Rashad Evans will no longer fight at the O2 Arena. It was stated earlier today that Brazilian fighter, Luis Cane would step-in to replace the injured James Irvin but Evans has now pulled out and Cane [...]
(His tattoo is watching even when he’s not. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)
Yesterday evening, the UFC announced that a broken foot has forced James Irvin to pull out from his UFC 85 match against Rashad Evans. Though UFC.com first reported that Luiz Cane would be stepping up to replace Irvin, a finalized card was released shortly after, which didn’t include Evans at all. The undercard fight between Nate Marquardt and Thales Leites has now been moved to the main pay-per-view card.
Anyway, that’s a bummer — I had high hopes for the Irvin/Evans match-up, as their conflicting styles could have produced some exciting results. But Evans is better off not being on the card at this point. Having to train for another new opponent (he was originally slated to fight Chuck Liddell) wouldn’t be fair to him with less than a month until the show, and historically, situations like that tend not to go well. Still, how cursed is this card? First it was Mauricio Rua with an injured knee. Then Liddell with a torn hammy. Then Chris Leben with his probation violation. Good Lord, is the O2 Arena built on an Indian burial ground or something?
In other UFC news:
— Early reports have UFC 88 slated for September 6th in Atlanta, GA. It would be the first time the UFC was held in the state of Georgia since UFC 13 in May 1997.
— TUF 6 alum Blake Bowman (remember, the guy who Mac Danzig used to mercilessly make fun of?) won his professional MMA debut on Friday, at the same event that produced the already-legendary double-K.O. involving Tyler Bryan and Shaun Parker. Facing Kevin Walker, who was also making his professional debut, Bowman won a TKO victory in just eight seconds, landing a head kick right at the bell and following it up with a punch that put Walker out.
— According to recent announcements and promotional materials, Brock Lesnar vs. Mark Coleman will not be the official main event of UFC 87. Could a headlining title fight be possible? GSP and Anderson Silva don’t have anything scheduled yet…
James Irvin sustained a broken foot while training for his fight against Rashad Evans at UFC 85: “Bedlam” in London, England, on June 7, forcing the promotion once again to shuffle the deck and repair a fight card riddled with replacements.
Luiz Cane — who was scheduled to take on Jason Lambert at the same event — has been plugged in to face “Sugar.” There’s no official word yet on whether or not “The Punisher” will still compete at the O2 Arena against a soon to be named opponent or if he’ll be bumped to a future card.
This is more bad news for Irvin who, admittedly, had a disastrous fight campaign in 2007, battling injuries and bizarre finishes inside the Octagon.
He got back on track with a sensational nine-second first round knockout of Houston Alexander at UFC Fight Night 13 last month. And when Chuck Liddell went down with a torn hamstring, he was called on to try and continue that run against Evans at UFC 85.
It apparently wasn’t meant to be … for now.
Cane lost his Octagon debut to Irvin at UFC 79: “Nemesis” because of a disqualification (illegal knee to the head). He was a highly touted prospect upon his arrival with the organization.
He now has a chance to show what he’s got against a relatively high profile opponent in Evans.
This is the third opponent for Evans, who will look to keep his undefeated record intact and preserve his chances at a light heavyweight title shot sometime down the road.
It will be interesting to see if the opponent carousel will have any impact on his performance in less than three weeks.
(Anderson Silva: Pound-for-pound the worst liar in the world.)
— Chuck Liddell’s hamstring injury, which forced him to pull out of a match against Rashad Evans at UFC 85, isn’t looking good. “He can barely bend over and tie his shoe,” Dana White said. “He tore his leg real bad. It’s pretty nasty.” As of now, there’s no official estimate on how long it will take for the Iceman to recover and return to the Octagon.
— A welterweight bout between Tamdan “AFC” McCrory and Luke Cummo is expected to go down at UFC 87. Both men are coming off losses — to Akihiro Gono and Luigi Fioravanti, respectively — and if this isn’t a “win or get fired” match, we don’t know what is. (Update: Cheick Kongo and BodogFight/Gladiator Challenge vet Dan Evensen are also expected to meet at UFC 87.) In other fight-booking news, a lightweight match between Spencer Fisher (who most recently lost to Frankie Edgar by decision at UFC 78) and Jeremy Stephens (who most recently TKO’d Cole Miller at UFC Fight Night 12) has been added to the Ultimate Fighter 7 finale (June 21st, Las Vegas).
— Remember that two-day seminar that Anderson Silva was supposed to do this weekend at Miletich Fighting Systems Houston? Well, he backed out at the last minute, citing “personal family health issues.” Turns out Silva was in Miami doing a two-day seminar at the grand opening of his own school. Said Alex Lopera of MFS Houston, “If this is true then we have been completely mislead and as you can imagine we are furious at this. We are doing our due diligence to confirm that this is really happening. If this is true we will take all legal recourse possible.” Busted!
— Tito Ortiz predicts that at UFC 84 there will be “about 16,000, probably 15,999 [fans] that will be screaming about Tito and there will be that one person that’s hating on me.” Sure, but he’ll be hating on you so loud that it’ll seem like thousands of people, all over the arena. That son-of-a-bitch and his voice-throwing…
