The Xtreme Fighting Association (XFA) recently announced the signing of Xtreme Couture trainer Shawn Tompkins to a three-fight deal in their K-1 style organization, and while there was initially no word on an opponent we all assumed it would be someone xtreme, like maybe one of those skateboarders from the Mountain Dew commercials. Now MMATraining.com is reporting that Tompkins’ first opponent may be none other than Ken Shamrock:
“I just signed a 3 fight deal with XFA, which is a K-1 kickboxing promotion in Las Vegas. I’ll be doing my first fight September 26th. Between September, December and February. They are looking at my first fight being Ken Shamrock”.
As much as those who train under him love to talk about Tompkins as some kind of Yoda of the fight game, his brief foray into MMA was, shall we say, unsuccessful. Perhaps returning to his roots as a kickboxer is a good idea.
Of course, embarking on a new career as a kickboxer is probably not a good idea for Shamrock, but that never stopped him before. Perhaps Tompkins will have to make an xample out of him. See what I’ve done there? I’m going to go cry now.
“No, there is no truth to that at all. It’s bullshit and Forrest Griffin will tell you that it’s bullshit too. The fact is it was a good sparring session and I was training with Forrest and he was talking to me about defending yourself at all times and then he threw a big kick and I was like, ‘WOAH I never even seen that coming’. But no, I never got knocked out. Even if I did get knocked out, saying that and putting that rumor out there just makes you a pussy.”
Wait a minute, so did you or did you not get knocked out? And why are you choking that old lady? Is she your accountant’s wife or something? Did she tap or nap?
On January 8 we submitted a list of seven (7) fighters to the IFL that would be available to fight in the IFL event from the Xtreme Couture gym. The fighters were: Dennis Davis 145lbs (16-8), Jay White Heavyweight (2-5), Phil Friedman Heavyweight (1-0), Eric Uresk 155lbs (2-3), Josh Haynes 185lbs (8-8), Johnny Hendricks 170lbs (3-0), and Karina Taylor 135lbs (0-1).
The IFL informed us that Dennis Davis would be booked to fight a prelim bout against Ian Loveland and that none of our other fighters would be utilized. According to the IFL none of our fighters were a proper matchup for Mario Sperry’s team of Brazilian fighters. The IFL intended to field a team of Benji Radach (who due to injury was replaced by Josh Haynes), Santino DeFranco and Lew Polley. Radach had been a member of Shawn Tompkins’ Anacondas team, while DeFranco and Polley are from American Top Team.
Lew Polley and Santino DeFranco are tremendous athletes and excellent fighters. However, they are members of American Top Team not Xtreme Couture. American Top Team is a great squad and by all means seem to be deserving of having their own team in the IFL. We have 35 athletes that train in our Las Vegas gym and proudly wear the Xtreme Couture patch on their shorts during fights. Yet the IFL decided to field a team called “Xtreme Couture” without putting any Xtreme Couture athletes on the team. The Patriots didn’t show up in the Super Bowl with a bunch of players from the Packers. Why would the Xtreme Couture name be put on the line and not be represented by Xtreme Couture fighters.
It is because of this that the team name was changed to ”Team Tompkins”.
DeFranco and Polley lost their fights, and Josh Haynes won, so nyeh nyeh nyeh on you, IFL. It’s kind of shocking that they would reject the guys that Randy Couture wanted to compete for his gym, and replace their actual fighters with ringers. When Couture signed on to field a team for the 2008 season, I figured that the IFL would bend over backwards to keep him happy. But they had their own plans, and now Randy’s like “I’m done with these jokers, let Tompkins worry about it.” The main reason we were excited about the IFL’s new camp vs. camp system was the idea that we’d be seeing the relatively unknown guys that each coach had hand-picked to represent their gyms. Unfortunately, the new season isn’t any less artificial than the last. Oh well; maybe they can get their shit together in 2009.
There’s another notable recent post on the Xtreme Couture blog which mentions Ken Shamrock swinging through the gym to work out when he was in town for the IFL event: “The World’s Most Dangerous Man tells us he hopes to fight Kimbo and his brother Frank after his March fight in the UK.” Could we be seeing Slice/Shamrock on CBS this summer? Cross your fingers and toes, because that would be huge — not only as a ratings draw, but because Kimbo would finally get the challenge he deserves.
What do y’all think, Kimbo by KO or Shamrock by leg-lock?
Here’s the video of Kim Couture’s amateur kickboxing debut, which went down at the Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas on Friday. Listen to her introduction at 4:02-4:13; am I crazy or is Kim’s nickname “Sugar Free”? Fight starts at the 4:44 mark, and Kim doesn’t look half bad, landing a lot of sharp body kicks and utilizing the reach advantage of her “monkey arms.” But Clarkson dominates in the third two-minute round, and if there was a decision, the Canadian visitor would have probably taken it. Randy shows up at 16:03 for some post-fight analysis.
The first round of the UFC/Randy Couture legal dust-up was scored 10-9 for the UFC, as Xtreme Couture has asked the IFL to remove their name from tonight’s 2008 season opener (more on that later) due to Randy’s ongoing litigation with the UFC. MMAPayout reports that the camp will instead use the name Team Tompkins, named for Xtreme Couture’s head trainer Shawn Tompkins, who has been coaching the team. Team Tompkins will feature last year’s contenders Chris Horodecki and Benji Radach, and reigning welterweight champion Jay Hieron. According to Joe Favorito, the IFL’s Senior VP of Communications, “The IFL is not in any way involved in this litigation, we are doing this out of professional courtesy for Randy and his group.” According to FightOpinion, judge Jennifer Togliatti ruled for further proceedings in terms of discovery (whatever that means), with the next hearing set for March 6th.
Though this move seems like a major concession to the UFC’s complaint that Couture is promoting other MMA organizations, he still has that “false and injurious statements” thing to deal with, which won’t be as easily solved as a name change. But at least it looks like Couture won’t be stonewalling for stonewalling’s sake; he’s willing to bend on the small stuff in order to free himself from his contract. More on this as it comes…
Though he wasn’t the one who did the actual stomping of Wanderlei Silva’s head during the infamous PRIDE 31 Chute Boxe/Hammer House riot, Phil Baroni did jump into the ring to defend Mark Coleman against the attacking Brazilians, and Wanderlei seemed to feel that the New York Bad Ass was equally to blame for his rough treatment. The must-see video below shows Mark Coleman’s attempt at an apology after that show, which was not well received.
Despite physically training here for the Chuck fight, Wanderlei didn’t train with our team outside of sparring with Shawn Tompkins. Instead he worked with his personal trainers. Wanderlei tells us that when he went to rope a dope Chuck in the first round of their fight he realized he couldn’t bounce of the cage and counter Chuck the way he could coming off the ropes in the PRIDE ring.
Training partner Phil Baroni says Wanderlei is already picking up some of Randy’s tricks after the first session. “He feels strong. He’s open minded and willing to learn. He picks things up fast.” The New York Bad Ass adds, “Once he learns to use the cage and incorporate wrestling into his game he’ll be really tough to beat in the UFC. It’s an honor to train with Wanderlei. He’s a guy I’ve always tried to emulate and I look up to him.”
Is there anything more humiliating than being Wanderlei Silva and having Phil Baroni pat you on the head and say “You’re doing such a good job! You’re picking this up so fast!” Poor bastard.
Also, there’s this bombshell:
Randy says that he and Wanderlei will continue working up until Wand’s next fight. We’re not sure if we’re allowed to say who he is fighting next. But we’re told it will happen in May and it is someone who has fought Chuck. He and the rest of the UFC’s 205lb division had best be on notice…Wanderlei tells us he’d like to rack up a couple of wins and rematch Chuck on New Year’s.
Specifically, Keith Jardine had best be on notice.
After proposed bouts against Frank Trigg and Antonio McKee fell through for an Oct. 20 card promoted by “Brawl for it All” at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned that Jake Shields’ next fight will be for EliteXC on November 10.
According to his trainer, Cesar Gracie, Shields has signed a bout agreement to fight on EliteXC’s next card against an opponent that has yet to be confirmed. However, Gracie did indicate that Shields’ opponent could end up being someone that is already on the EliteXC roster and currently trains out of Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.
According to prior interviews by Shields, he has just one fight remaining on his current contract with EliteXC. Unless he has already signed extension, he could become a true free agent following the event on Nov. 10.
Former UFC fighter Mark Homnick was victorious this past Saturday while fighting for the Canada-based fight promotion TKO at the Bell Centre in Montreal, reports The Fight Network.
Hominick broke a two-fight losing streak with a first round TKO over Ben Greer. According to TFN, the win could lead to a return to the WEC for Hominick with Alex Karalexis being discussed as a potential opponent.
TFN is also reporting that Hominick is planning to start training on a regular basis at Randy Couture’s Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas, NV.
