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Archive for September, 2008

UFC Champ Anderson Silva To Retire?

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva has once again rocked the MMA world in a recent interview with a Brazilan television station.

We all remember the firestorm that followed Silva’s request to fight boxing legend Roy Jones Jr after it appeared there was no one left for him to fight in MMA. The UFC denied this request and instead had Silva jump up a division to fight James Irvin in July, which lasted a mere 61 seconds to solidfy his #1 status in the pound for pound rankings.

A few weeks after this fight, Silva raised more eyebrows when he and his camp had requested a superfight with Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell. When I asked Dana White about his thoughts, he said he like the idea but would like to see a fight between Silva and GSP instead.

All this appears to be frustrating ‘The Spider’ as he told the Brazilian TV station:

“I’ll retire next year, I already gave my all. I don’t need to prove anything for anyone and within one year I’ll put my gloves aside.”

I wonder if Silva is bored and isn’t happy with the calibre of opponent that the UFC is putting in front of him. Silva’s next fight is a middleweight title defence on October 25th, against Canadian Patrick ‘The Predator’ Cote. I had the chance to speak with Cote earlier today regarding Silva’s retirement comments and that perhaps the Brazilian champ is overlooking the Canadian. Cote was candid in his response, when he stated:

‘I guess I’ll have to send Silva into early retirement then. I hope he is not looking past me cause I am in the best shape of my life and I want to fight the best Anderson Silva, not a guy thinking about retirement.’

For those who think that Patrick Cote cannot win this fight, perhaps Silva has just given him that extra motivation to pull off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.

Get Your MMA FIX With A Big Night Of Fights Tonight

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

All Fighters Made Weight For UFN 15, so we can now look forward to tonight’s broadcast. Check out my Ultimate Fight Night preview and let me know your thoughts. While I enjoy analyzing fights, predicting winners is a difficult task, especially considering, well, IT’S A FIGHT. Anything can happen so based on the info that is available, on paper, we all do our best in seeing how things unfold.

As Quinton Jackson prepares for his UFC 91 fight with Wanderlei Silva, much has been made about his former trainer and manager, Juanito Ibarra. He appears to be getting blackballed by many of the fighters in the industry, but now, he finally speaks out in an interview with Josh Gross at SI.com.

The Evan Tanner memorial service will be held on September 27 in Amarillo and special tribute on Spike TV is coming soon

The Season Premier of Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter goes down right The Ultimate Fight Night. One of the coaches Frank Mir has some interesting thoughts on Kimbo Slice, and basically stated that every time Kimbo Slice fights it sets the sport back Kimbo is taking on Ken Shamrock in EliteXC’s next CBS installment on October 04th. Also on the card is Gina Carano, who can be seen here, in a video photoshoot and interview for Shape.

In some Canadian MMA news, Mike Swick vs. Jonathan Goulet is in the works for “The Ultimate Fighter 8” finale scheduled for December 13th. This is a big test for Goulet against a guy who hits hard and fast and is looking to move up the welterweight rankings in hopes for a title shot against GSP. seeing as two of Swick’s training partners (Josh Koschek and Jon Fitch) have been defeated by GSP in previous bouts, there is some motivation for Swick to get past Goulet, who is a fellow French Canadian fighter. I can already hear the ‘USA, USA’ chants.

For all of the Cro Cop fans, he is scheduled to fight September 23rd in Japan at Dream 6 and is in the midst of dealing with an opponent who is spouting at the mouth. Mirko Cro Cop doesn’t appreciate Overeem’s trash talk (Props BloodyElbow.com) and speaks about it in this video interview.

Alright, time to get ready for a big night of fights. Make sure you give me a call tomorrow night on The Showdown at 12am. We’ll be opening the phone lines right off the bat, so it’s all about your thoughts, questions and opinion.

Ultimate Fight Night 15 Is Upon Us

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Tommorow night, we get another installment of free MMA on TV, specifically on Rogers Sportsnet, where they will be broadcasting Ultimate Fight Night 15.

There are some good clips on line to view with:

Right after the broadcast is the debut of Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter, featuring coaches Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera and Frank Mir. This season will feature fighters in the Light Heavyweight and Lightweights. For now, meet the light heavyweights.

On a side note, Tickets for UFC 91: Couture vs Lesnar go on sale this week. If you plan on going to see this event in Vegas, better book soon because not only will this historic event sell out fast, it is also being forecast as the highest pay per view buy rate in the history of the UFC. Will it break a million buys? It’ll be close, but I believe it will.

Georges “Rush” St. Pierre is in Rio de Janeiro and talks Jon Fitch, BJ Penn and the his team mate Patrick Cote, who will have it tough when he gets a title shot vs Anderson Silva at UFC 90. There is also a Dana White video interview, which gets a variety of personal thoughts as opposed to his opinions on a variety of MMA topics.

For more MMA News, see below:

Affliction News

Golden Boy Hopes Affliction Will Be Its Key to MMA Fans, HBO “Respectfully Declines” Arlovski-Barnett

Golden Boy, Affliction combine demos

Fans will ruin Affliction-Golden Boy partnership

Affliction’s Golden Opportunity

Postponement Afflicts Fighters with Frustration

Despite Affliction postponement, Jay Hieron still planning to fight Oct. 11

Deividas Taurosevicius signs with Affliction

WEC News

WEC Champ Miguel Torres To Defend In December

David Avellan: Hometown Boy Driven For WEC Debut

Strikeforce News

Joe Riggs on bout with Misaki and Near Street Fight With Kimbo

Japanese MMA News

HDNet Fights DREAM.6 Preview

Winners of Cro Cop/Overeem, Kharitonov/Mighty Mo to Fight for DREAM Heavyweight Title

Misc. MMA News

New Renzo Gracie documentary to debut during film festival

Ibarra essentially banished from MMA world

Boxing and MMA is like oil and water

Xtreme MMA 5 Pictures

Evan Tanner: 1971 – 2008

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Every so often, you meet people in life that were not what you expected them to be. Your perception of ‘who they might be’ is silenced by ‘who they actually are’. Evan Tanner was just that. A complex man who’s free spirit made it all look so simple.

Unfortunately, Evan Tanner’s spirit is all we have left to remember a man who loved life and all of its adventures. Tanner was found dead by an Imperial County Sheriff’s Department Deputy on Monday September 08th, 2008, after being reported missing by friends on Friday, September 05th. Tanner’s eventual fate was foreshadowed in his own words and beliefs.

Tanner was on a camping trip, alone, in the Palo Verde region in Southern California. When he first posted on his blog that he was going on this self-expedition, he spoke about the various dangers that he would encounter. ‘I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life.’

It was as if Tanner knew it all along yet was unafraid of the fight he was about to face. He was never one to back down from a challenge and was more than ready to face life head on.

It was all about life’s journeys and adventures, the day to day decision to stay or go and the free will to march to his own drum. He believed that when your time came, when it was time for you to go, you better have some good stories to tell. Tanner had more than his fair share to tell.

“When you’re on your death bed, it’s those stories, those little adventures that are going to be the things that you remember. It’s not so much getting there, but how you got there.” And for anyone that has ever met Tanner, believe me, he could spin any conversation into a past experience, a story or a self-awakening epiphany.

Although, Tanner was a former UFC Champion, he never considered himself a fighter. He viewed fighting as just one piece of a multi-faceted life. It was simply something he liked to do; nothing less, nothing more.

He never believed it was his calling in life, but it was the spirit within that made him a fighter. Tanner summed it up in the following quote:

“I believe there are people out there that just have a warrior spirit, whether it’s fighting or something, they’ve got to do it. It’s hard to identify with me; it’s just something I do.”

Years ago, a friend of mine spent some time with Evan Tanner, an Amarillo, Texas native and shared some interesting stories about Tanner’s free spirit. It was during a time when Tanner considered his life a black hole, a void and one filled with vices. I remember asking Tanner about these dark days and he smiled, told me that it was simply another one of life’s experiences that teach you ‘right from wrong, good from bad and to overcome the pain that life can sometimes dish out’.

As time went on, Tanner’s spirit continued to take him places most people would describe as strange for a celebrity; places that had him doing things that people in the public light should not be doing. But he never considered himself a celebrity or a star for that matter. He was just a simple guy on a path of exploration and never caught up in the big lights or the status that made him a recognizable face amongst thousands of MMA fans.

While I have always enjoyed Tanner’s stories and thoughts on life, the one I enjoyed most was a story he told a few years back about being ‘lucky’ to be where he was and to appreciate it all. He believed that there were so many great fighters out there that never get the chance to shine but he was just at the right place at the right time and ran with it.

It was never about the riches or the fame but rather, it was something he could add to his bucket list of life. His bucket list took him all over the world and it is sadden to know he was unable to see so much more.

We will never see Evan Tanner back in the Octagon but he will live through our memories in a variety of lights. The man who taught himself how to fight by watching techniques on video tapes will always shine as the man with the tightly braided hair vs Rich Franklin or perhaps the shaggy haired veteran who defeated David Terrell to become the UFC champ. Who can forget the clean cut Tanner at UFC 82 vs Yushin Okami or the bearded warrior vs Kendall Grove at the TUF 7 Finale.

At age 37, Tanner has left us far too soon. It was always a treat to read an update on one of his various blogs. His outlook on life was refreshing, especially from the mundane, politically correct typical fighter blabber. Tanner saw it all in a different way and was able to express his thoughts, feelings and emotions with the tone of a philospher. For a person who was so complex, he was just as simple. Evan Tanner may be gone, but his free-spirit lives on in so many different ways.

Is This The End For ‘The IceMan’?

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

With Rashad Evan’s devastating knockout of UFC legend Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell, the former UFC Light-heavyweight champion will have to dig deep and do some soul searching if he wants to remain a serious contender in the 205 lbs class.

At age 38, Liddell appears destined for retirement but if he does decide to make one more run for the title, he needs to change a few things…and the proof is in the pudding!!!

Liddell has lost 3 of his last 4 fights. The first one was to Rampage Jackson which cost him his title. The second loss was to Keith Jardine, which showcased a weak game plan by Liddell and an inability to make real-time changes in the Octagon and on Saturday night, Liddell’s striking-only game plan was exposed by Rashad Evans, a fighter known far more for his wrestling skills than for his punching prowess.

The one key fight here was the victory over Vanderlai Silva. Even though for the vast majority of the fight, Liddell did use his prototypical striking-only game plan, in the third round, he surprised Silva ( and everybody that was watching) by taking down the Brazilian and working some ground’n'pound.

It is that element of surprise that Liddell needs to insert back into his game because as is stands, opponents have figured out his game plan, whether he is stalking them in the fight or counter-punching in hopes to land the knockout blow. But the question remains, will Liddell retire?

The Iceman said after the fight Saturday that he won’t make his decision right away. Personally, I don’t think he’ll shut it down for good quite yet. But if Liddell wants to return to the upper echelon that is Anderson Silva, Georges St.Pierre and BJ Penn, he will need to replicate what all three of these fighters have, and that’s a multi-faceted arsenal that can finish a fight in all ranges of the game.

Couture vs Lesnar and UFC 88

Monday, September 1st, 2008

Due to the labour day weekend, it’s been relatively quiet over the past 24 hours surrounding any updates pertaining to the potential return of Randy Couture at UFC 91 in Portland, Oregon.We all know that Brock Lesnar is the rumoured opponent but as mentioned in yesterday, there are many people that have forgotten about the UFC Interm Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. It appears there are many people waking up and taking notice as is evidenced by this great piece entitled How to Properly Handle Couture vs. Lesnar.

We all want to see Couture come back, especially considering the perfect world scenario that sees Couture vs Fedor Projected For Superbowl Weekend, alongside GSP / Penn II…but lest we forget Affliction’s exclusivity on Fedor’s American fights.

UFC 88 goes down this weekend and I’ll be heading down to cover the event. We’ve all heard the saying ‘Sugar’ and ‘Ice’ Make Everything Nice, and that’s exactly what is projected in the main event with ‘Sugar’ Rashad Evans taking on ‘The Iceman’ Chuck Liddell.

The card is fairly stacked with Rich Franklin returning to the Light Heavyweight Division vs Matt Hammil, Dan Henderson Looks To Climb Back the middleweight ladder vs Rousimar Palhares, Karo Parisyan Ready For Olympic Challenge vs fellow Judoka Yushiyoki Yoshida.

Martin Kampmann Talks Nate Marquardt in this upcoming middleweight bttle while Kurt Pellegrino Looks In The Mirror At UFC 88 as he takes on Thiago Tavares, in a potential ‘loser goes home’ match. As always, the UFC 88 odds are showcasing some really good value.

For more news, see below:

UFC News

Rampage Jackson Accuses Police of Abuse

Wolfslair manager comments on signing of “Rampage” Jackson

MMA Legend and Trainer Eric Paulson Talks Protégé, Brock Lesnar

UFC 90 Update: Tibau Out, Aurelio In vs Former Teammate Hermes Franca

Noguiera Hanging TUF; Preparing For Mir

‘Shogun’ Talks Recovery, Possible December Return

Amir Sadollah announces possible return at UFC 91

The Ultimate Fighter 1 Reunion recap

Buyer’s remorse? CBS rethinks EliteXC, flirts with UFC

EliteXC News