- Watching the outstanding final season of The Wire. More thoughts on this when I have them, but it’s up there with the best TV ever.
- Reading the fine works of Chris Ware, most notably Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. Creepy, disturbing, brilliant.
- Playing Company of Heroes and the Opposing Fronts expansion after they showed up on Steam in a gold pack. I have been meaning to go back and start some semblance of an online career, playing the campaign right now to get me ready. I had forgotten how much better this is than most games in the genre.
- Attending what will hopefully be Ken Shamrock’s second last fight (let them do the brother vs brother match). He got knocked out by Buzz Berry in the first round and all I could think sitting there in Wembley Arena was why didn’t you shoot Ken? Just shoot and take him down. Guess they didn’t have game plans back in the early days of MMA. British guys have horrible wrestling so there is no excuse.
- Catching up on some of the movies I tragically missed recently.
Archive for the 'MMA' Category
The dedicated few made the difficult trip up to Newcastle to check out UFC 80 this weekend. The Metro Radio Arena is a tiny shed of a venue compared to the O2 and the M.E.N. making our cheap ‘nose bleed’ seats seem considerably closer than previous shows. This was a great show to see live as only one fight went the distance (the opposite of UFC 75) and even that was pretty exciting. The roof blew off whenever BJ Penn did anything and we were all pleased to see him finally get the lightweight belt, he deserved it. I don’t think the noise in the arena came across on TV, although I didn’t realise quite how bloody the fight was till I watched it back at home.
Oh and due to a hilarious lapse in security when the show ended we got octagon side, met Mike Goldberg and got involved in the numerous chants aimed at Joe Rogan, Dana White and of course Micheal Bisping. At one point there were about 20 guys chanting like crazy at Goldberg right behind the camera while he was doing a fill for a prelim, if you watch it back you can just make out the noise but Goldberg never cracks - what a pro.
Great show, fun weekend, shame about the location, come on Dana bring UFC to Birmingham!
Go read my round up from last year first. Wow. What a difference a year makes.
Most turbulent year in the history of MMA: 2007
Best Division: UFC Lightweight
A ton of high quality fighters having a ton of high quality fights. Fast paced, entertaining and highly competitive. It will be interesting to see who gets the winner of BJ/Stevenson vs Sherk next year.
Favourite Fighter: Quinton Rampage Jackson
Inside and outside the octagon always a character and with a new training team behind him this year was able to take out Liddell and defend against a very game Dan Henderson.
Favourite Match: Phil Baroni vs Frank Shamrock
This one is too hard. I picked this match because of the story, the characters and the fight all built up perfectly. Both guys were physically and mentally destroyed afterwards. Also worthy are Tyson Griffin vs. Frankie Edgar, Chuck Liddell vs Wanderei Silva, Clay Guida vs Roger Huerta, Roger Huerta vs. Leonard Garcia, Tyson Griffin vs Clay Guida, Forrest Griffin vs Shogun, Randy Couture vs Tim Sylvia. The list goes on.
Favourite Moment: Randy Couture comes out of retirement to defeat Tim Sylvia
This was such a special fight, it was Rocky but real. Everyone disliked (hate is a strong word) Tim Sylvia and everybody loved (past tense) Randy. No one expected that first punch and no one expected it to be such a great performance. I was standing for all 25 minutes.
Worst Moment: Randy Couture parts ways with the UFC
After the high of winning the belt and then crushing Gonzaga, Randy decided to hang up the gloves due to some really dumb reasons. I think he is hiding something now. UFC should just call his bluff and co-promote a Fedor vs Couture fight with M1 Global. With the cool $2 million that will get him there will be no excuses.
Worst Trend: It’s all about the money
Randy, Tito, Fedor, etc. Stop bitching and start fighting.
Best Match That Never Happened: Fedor Emelyanenko vs Randy Couture
See above. Fedor ran away and Couture left his contract.
Show Of The Year: Pride 33
An absolute classic filled with upsets. The last great Pride event.
Didn’t see any of the other MMA blogs pick this up. On the most recent episode of the PC Gamer podcast they had Jens Pulver on to talk Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and more. He goes into a ton of detail about the games he plays, his old clan and shows a deep appreciation for gaming that you don’t hear often from athletes. Turns out he even has a deal with Activision to sponsor him for his debut fight in WEC next week against Cub Swanson.
Time to add my thoughts - better late than never.
Randy and Dana have both made their arguments. Dana insists Randy was happy with his contract when he signed 8 months ago and didn’t attempt to renegotiate before quitting. Randy says Dana the Fertitas lied to him about being the second most highly paid fighter in the company and they failed to secure the big fight with Fedor.
If what Dana says is true, and Randy never even attempted to renegotiate his contract, I would side with Dana on this one. If he felt he wasn’t being paid enough the best course was to tell management directly rather than asking them where he stands in the company, talking to other fighters and then quitting out of the blue. I would agree with Couture that he should be paid the same if not more than anyone else in the heavyweight division (if not the entire company) but he did nothing to ensure that happened.
The other issue is Randy being very hung up on Fedor. Rightly so, he is still considered by most analysts to be the number one heavyweight in the world. It is completely logical that Randy would want to test himself against this man - once and for all silence all the critics and put the brakes on the Fedor hype train. It is for this reason I believe Randy only wants one more fight, for it to be with Fedor and for it to set him up financially for a long long time. Win or lose that fight I see him retiring for good if it ever happens.
So long term match making has not been greatly affected but the image of the UFC in the eyes of the mainstream has been tarnished and the heavyweight division thrown up in the air.
It’s been a great week of MMA action and the entire UFC Light-Heavyweight division has been turned on it’s head. These are the fights that need to be made coming out of this week:
Forrest Griffin vs Rampage Jackson
The interviews alone will make this fight do huge business. The fight itself is guaranteed to be exciting and either man as champion is great for the sport. Make this happen.
Chuck Liddell vs Shogun Rua
Both coming off losses gives a chance for either guy to rebuild their career. This one must end in knockout.
Wanderlei Silva vs Keith Jardine
As Silva was going to fight Chuck until Dana White jinxed it the day before, Keith Jardine can now step up and take his place. If Silva comes back strong in this one he could make a name for himself with casual UFC fans.
A quick note on the Jinx. I was pleased that Dana hadn’t confirmed his intentions to match Liddell and Silva up in December should Chuck beat Jardine. Of course he broke this rule the day before the fight and it was hammered home during the PPV that this was the plan. I knew Chuck was doomed as soon as this started as its happened so many times before. If the matches take place as above and both Liddell and Silva win the fight must happen at that point. Of course the chance of them both winning is very slim.
As for Jardine. He has a strange style, looks weird and can’t talk very well. You could apply that to Chuck but he is marketable whereas Jardine is not. The Dean of Mean needs to go down.
Where Houston Alexander fits into this is anyone’s guess.
I can safely say a very fine weekend was had by all and I am eager to do it all over again when Zuffa comes back in to town. The new O2 arena is fantastic and was a great venue for some awesome fights. Joe Rogan was on a tear the night before on stage for several hours in front of the sold out Arts Theatre. There was a nice bonus on the way out meeting the ‘veteran voice of the octagon’ Bruce Buffer who seemed to be desperately hunting for a toilet when I asked for a photo. The man is more orange in person than on TV for those interested - must be that Las Vegas sun.
The atmosphere for the fights themselves was excellent. The Bisping reaction was more mixed than it seemed on TV. I had him losing two rounds with the third being pretty close. Rematch coming. The unification title match was hard for many people to keep track of as in some of the rounds it was hard to tell a clear winner. I scored it for Jackson 48-47 live and 49-46 after watching the tape because Rampage did more damage in the third. Oh and if anyone has a link for the fantastic fight montage with the music Baba O’Reily by The Who that is shown before the PPV starts please let me know as I can’t find it anywhere.
It seems like the next show for Europe will be either back here or in Germany but it can’t come soon enough. Thanks everyone for a great weekend!
Gordon Brown and David Cameron - leave the games industry alone unless your are going to get off your arses and support it financially like you do the film business. The latter of which has brought us such timeless classics as SAW and HOSTEL.
The British Medical Association - before you open your mouths why don’t you read ACTUAL FACTS AND STATISTICS about MMA before regurgitating the same crap the sensationalist main stream media wrote 2 years ago. The argument is so far beyond ‘human cock fighting’ now you make yourselves look redundant and obsolete.
There has been a lot of fuss from many writers over a recent BBC News article covering the upcoming Cage Wars event in Glasgow. While far more balanced the whole thing is very reminiscent of how many US media outlets reacted when MMA was finding its feet there.
Part of the problem in the UK is that the local promotions, much like the old owners of UFC, advertise it as ‘Cage Fighting’ rather than ‘Mixed Martial Arts’. This definitely has a negative connotation and as a result of using this term the reporters latch on to it and their interviewees react accordingly be they Police or Church reps.
When I tell people I watch Mixed Martial Arts its a completely different reaction than if I told them I watch Cage Fighting. Aside from the fact MMA doesn’t necessarily take place in a cage the term also brings with it suggestions of skill rather than a no holds barred brawl. Using the term MMA people mention Karate, Judo, Ju Jitsu, Kick Boxing and more in conversation. If I called it Cage Fighting I’m sure those people would be more concerned about biting and low blows.
So UK promoters do yourselves and the sport a favour and call it what it is - MIXED MARTIAL ARTS. These are highly skilled athletes who train for years to be the best at what they do. Calling them Cage Fighters involved in the sport of Cage Fighting ruins the image completely and opens the sport up to rampant outrage from the masses. UFC 75 can’t come soon enough for this country.
Those of us who live across the pond kind of rely on the internet to watch UFC in it’s original unedited form. This leaves us using either the shady underground world of Bit Torrent or the legal UFC On Demand. UFC On Demand is usually a bad experience as it is but this weekend was a joke. By the time it got to the main event look at what kind of picture I was left with:
Fantastic quality UFC! This was not the only problem during the show. There was also an issue when they show the camera angles that are directed through the cage. Every time it happens the framerate drops through the floor and you can’t see punches, elbows or whatever connecting (a big problem in a Sean Sherk fight). Probably something to do with the encoding of the video and the super low bit rate they use.
Has anyone in Zuffa actually looked at this horrible service? My guess is they just outsourced it on the cheap and forgot about it (like their crappy DVDs). Up the bit rate, fix your lazy encoding issues, support Firefox and don’t trip over the cables in the video production van!
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