Full Contact Talk: MMA discussion

Full Contact Talk just spoke with David I. Schwarz (Vice President of Communications for Spike) regarding the controversial video that was uploaded to Spike.com mocking the death of UFC fighter Evan Tanner. Spike immediately yanked the video from its website once it was viewed internally.

“When the video caught our attention, it was immediately removed from our website. We were equally appalled by it as Evan was a close friend of the channel, said Schwarz.“

The video which is unfortunately still available on Youtube.com was uploaded by two wannabe MMA analysts that seem to film from their parent’s basement. Known as “Tagteam Supreme,” host Justin Blank referred to his sidekick during the opening monologue as the ghost of Evan Tanner. The language and supposed humor used within the video is considered outrageous by the vast majority of the mixed-martial-arts community.

If you’d like to let Justin Blank know your feelings, he can be found at:

http://www.myspace.com/thetagteam

The following video is simply unacceptable on so many levels that I am experiencing difficulty even finishing this post. I had trouble making the decision of posting this horrific video. At first I thought by posting it, I was giving it exposure. But then I thought that my readers might like to get involved. Props to Yahoo’s Steve Cofield and Fight Linker for first exposing two wannabes treading on incredibly thin ice. And I adamantly support free speech. But the language on this video is quite simply cruel and an example of two lonely guys attempting to get famous from a controversial video blog.

UFC 89 Michael Bisping Vs. Chris Leben Predictions

If you have problems loading the video above. It is also available below from Youtube.com

He Said, She Said: Barnett Claims No Ducking, Affliction Insinuates Otherwise

MMARated.com reported yesterday that Affliction originally intended for the resheduled fight between Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett to take place during a co-promoted event with EliteXC during its October 4 primtime fight night on CBS. The web lit up with conclusions and criticism far and wide. Not necessarily criticism aimed directly at Affliction working together with EliteXC but rather some not always positive language for Josh Barnett. Barnett was criticized at times for being a prima donna. But of course there was those who sided with Barnett often asking, “Why would a top five world ranked heavyweight fighter want to be on the undercard of a fight with a highly controversial brawler and an aging veteran?” Throughout the day since MMARated’s report, a lot of uncertainty still hovered around the confirmation of the fight until of course it was revealed late yesterday that Andrei Arlovski would face Roy Nelson on October 4 instead. During an exclusive interview with MMARated.com, Affliction president Tom Atencio stated:

“We’ve been working on the CBS deal for ten days or so. What we’re trying to do is things that are good for the industry. If we can work with these guys great. It [The EliteXC fight on October 4] was going to be Arlovski versus (Josh) Barnett. But what happened was we couldn’t finalize a deal with Barnett and he went to sign with Sengoku.”

Clearly Atencio did not elaborate on the intimate details regarding the situation with Josh Barnett but the trash talk circulated the internet to the point that Josh Barnett posted a blog on Myspace in an effort to silence if not rebut the rumors that he refused the fight offer from Affliction and also rumors that he was asked to take a cut in pay. Josh Barnett stated in a blog post titled “Arlovski on CBS:”

“I read somewhere that I had declined the fight because I would have had to take a pay cut. I suppose others may also formulate some story about me declining the fight for other reasons. I never declined to take this fight. I was never told that I would have any part of my pay reduced since working with Affliction. To my knowledge, no one has been asked to take a pay cut that fights for Affliction. I did not turn down this fight.”

Interestingly, it should be noted that as of today, EliteXC has not officially updated the October 4 fight card on its events web page to feature the bout between Andrei Arlovski and Roy Nelson. But the fight is confirmed currently by the mainstream press.

From Russia with love: EliteXC signs Alexander Shlemenko

Five Ounces Of Pain reports that EliteXC has signed 2005 World Pankration champion Alexander Shlemenko. For those not in the know, Shlemenko is a tough up-and-comer from Russia that many insiders predict will be a contender very soon in the Untied States. Shlemenko’s deal is rumored to be one of the multi-fight persuasion and talk is that the Russian will make his EliteXC debut during the promotion’s October 10 ShoXC event at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana

Here’s a vintage fight video from Alexander Shlemenko:

The Brothers Lauzon: Joe’s litte bro gets some limelight

Joe Lauzon, a standout on SpikeTV’s The Ultimate Fighter Season 5 as part of B.J. Penn’s team, has a younger brother that is equally promising and tenacious in many minds. Dan Lauzon is cited as the youngest fighter to debut in the UFC even though some sources were claiming Vitor Belfort as the youngest to debut. But of course Belfort debuted at age 19 during UFC 12 against Tra Telligman in February 1997. Belfort was the youngest fighter to “win” a debut UFC fight with Lauzon losing his debut to Spencer Fisher via TKO at UFC 64. But youthful losses aside, Lauzon has a promising future. In fact, both Lauzon brothers are slowly climbing towards comparison with another very talented set of MMA brothers in that of Nick and Nate Diaz. Below is a great video produced by MSNBC that reveals a brief chapter in the young fighter’s life.

Dan Lauzon: I am a fighter

And here’s a Lauzon brothers highlight video which even features the two rolling in the family’s backyard.

And for good measure, here’s scenes from Joe Lauzon’s recent pig roast. Guests really got their kicks at the event.

Oh, the pain … and I am not talking about the punch that was thrown

Kimbo Slice appeared on national television again. Yes, the one time bodyguard for a pornography company now entertains grannies in middle America. Far away from the EliteXC cage, this television appearance by Mr. Slice was a stunt to punch magician David Blaine in the stomach in some lackluster homage to Harry Houdini. Fans of Houdini may recall that a punch to the stomach is what killed the legendary magician. Entertainment Weekly reports that the ratings for Blaine’s primetime show were a dump. And I think we at FCT know why. Kimbo should have punched Blaine in the head and then punched Criss Angel in the head afterward. And why not punch David Copperfield as well to keep things fair and balanced? Now, I would have watched such an event. Heck, I would have TIVO’d it for eternity. Do pardon me if I am showing my loyalty to Harry Houdini a bit too strongly.

Well, only in Rich Franklin’s dreams. But hey, it’s a start. And at least Franklin made some extra money. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen meet the “Cyborg Soldier.” A cybernetic humanoid who really knows how to fight in real life and can also challenge Randy Couture to a B-Movie brawl.

The official Movie Description

“I.S.A.A.C. (Intuitive Synthetic Autonomous Assault Commando), played by former UFC Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin, is the first prototype of a confidential “human weapon” program. Once a death-row inmate, he is now a genetically reconstructed, highly trained, deadly assassin whose body and mind have been modified to become a physically regenerative, intellectually superior human being. On the run, I.S.A.A.C. takes Deputy Lindsay Rearden (Tiffani Thiessen; “Beverly Hills, 90210″) hostage. Their lives in jeopardy from secret military agents being lead by world-renowned robotic engineer Simon Hart (Bruce Greenwood; I, Robot; National Treasure: Book of Secrets), the deputy and I.S.A.A.C. combine forces to expose the military group constructing these super beings. “

Cyborg Soldier is currently available for pre-order on DVD. The official release date is October 7, 2008. Oh, and we thought there was something a bit familiar about a martial artist starring in a movie with a cyborg theme.

Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipović’s return to the Japanese fight world at Dream 6 on September 23 was not a triumphant affair. In fact, neither Cro-Cop or his opponent looked like veterans of mixed-martial-arts. Rather, the heavily anticipated grudge match between the Croatia’s Cro-Cop and the Netherlands’ Alistair Overeem played out like a clumsy wrestling match interrupted by two “official” illegal knees to the testicles. The referee called two illegal knees whereas I seem to recall a couple more than the official number that eventually resulted in a yellow card for Overeem.

The final result of the fouls was a damaged Cro-Cop wincing in pain because one of his testicles was actually pushed up into his body. The fight between Cro-Cop and Overeem was a disappointment on many levels. The one fight on the Dream 6 event that had the most potential to be an emotional war stumbled downward into a lackluster series of restarts and time-outs. And in the end I was left with a looming question; “Why doesn’t Cro-Cop simply move down one weight class?”

Cro-Cop is a small heavyweight. He walks around normally in the 230 pound range. Heck, current light heavyweight Forrest Griffin walks around sometimes as big as 240 pounds and he makes the cut in weight easily each fight. Cro-Cop shows superiority in the ring against middleweight to light heavyweight fighters. Just refer to his devastation of Wanderlei Silva back in 2006 at Pride Final Conflict.  But against the bigger fighters in MMA, Cro-Cop has faced uphill battles. Gabriel Gonzaga who is a very large fighter treated Cro-Cop to a taste of his on head-kick medicine following an entire round of domination and ground-and-pound. And Cheick Kongo muscled Cro-Cop around soon after. Not to mention that Kongo much like Overeem last night at Dream 6, kneed Cro-Cop to the groin requiring a momentary stoppage to the fight. And it is these illegal knees that place focus on Cro-Cop’s size.

In the clinch, taller fighters often throw accidental knees to the groin of shorter opponents. Of course this is not Cro-Cop’s fault, but it lends to the concept of moving down to a weight class where such scenarios will potentially not occur as easily.  Cro-Cop is still wildly popular with fans worldwide but performances such as last night’s will certainly derail the train of optimism at some point. Let’s face it, before the multiple illegal shots stunned Cro-Cop, Overeem was easily tossing him around the ring. Was Overeem’s performance at Dream 6 one for the record books? By no means. It was mostly just the forces of gravity hard at work. But at minimum it leaves a lot of questions regarding Cro-Cop’s future.

The official Dream 6 Results:

Gegard Mousasi wins the Dream MW Grand Prix with an upkick knockout of Ronaldo “Jacare” de Souza in round one.

Mousasi defeated Melvin Manhoef in the semi-finals via triangle choke in round one.

Jacare defeated Zelg Galesic via armbar in round one.

Andrews Nakahara defeated Dong Sik Yoon via TKO in the second round.

Cro-Cop vs. Allistair Overeem ended in a no contest when Cro-Cop took two knees to the groin. The fight was halted in the 2nd round.

Shinya Aoki defeated Todd Moore via neck crank- 1:10 of round 1.

Yoshihiro Akiyama defeated Masanori Toonoka via armbar- 6:26 of round 1.

Hayato “Mach” Sakurai defeated Kuniyoshi Hironaka via unanimous decision.

Undercard:

Masakatsu Funaki defeated Ikuhisa Minowa via heel hook- :52 of round 1.

Atsushi Yamamoto defeated Hideo Tokoro via unanimous decision.

Sergei Kharitonov defeated Jimmy Ambriz via TKO- 2:15 of round 1.

Keita Nakamura defeated Adriano Martins via split decision

It is my humble opinion that Yahoo Sports is one of the few mainstream sports departments that understands mixed-martial-arts. And they have understood and respected the sport for a while now. Kevin Iole often writes articles that are on the mark and beyond the stale opinions of some aging boxing writer trying to make the transition into MMA coverage. Iole has transcended the boxing analyst role for the most part while taking jabs from critics who accuse him of being a robot for the UFC. But again, I think Iole gets the sport for the most part. Earlier today as I scanned the Yahoo Sports section, I stumbled across a fiery blog post by Maggie Hendricks. Hendricks apparently covered the recent Olympics for Yahoo Sports and had some swaggering words for EliteXC’s top female fighter that was a response of sorts to comments Carano made during a story by John Morgan of MMAJunkie.com. To help my readers enjoy a full experience here, read Hendrick’s blog post below using Rosie Perez as the imaginary voice.

Maggie Hendricks:

“Gina Carano says that she is not the face of women’s MMA. She doesn’t want the label, she only wants to be known as a fighter. She definitely doesn’t want to be famous. I have just one thing to say to that: HONEY, PLEASE.

First off, being the face of women’s MMA has made you a wealthy woman. Do you think that your sponsorships, magazine profiles and job on American Gladiator would be around if you weren’t the face of women’s MMA? You didn’t even make weight for your last fight, yet media and the public are still writing about you, searching your name online, and looking forward to your fight on October 4. That translates into sponsorship dollars for you.

Secondly, if you didn’t want all of this attention, then why did you invite press to your workout? If you truly don’t want people writing about you, then don’t invite people who write for a living to your gym. It’s not rocket science. If you are just a fighter, then just fight. Don’t be an American Gladiator, don’t pose for Maxim and don’t accept every interview request.

Or you could try this, dear Gina. Enjoy the fact that you are a popular fighter and everything that comes with that title. Thrive in your role as the best known woman in MMA. Make weight for your next fight, win decisively and reap the benefits of being a great fighter. Be an ambassador for the sport and help it grow so that you can pass on the title of the face of women’s MMA. Just don’t complain about the fame you grew.”

So, did you imagine Rosie Perez exclaiming the words above? I sure did. With her neck bobbing back and forth and one of her palms held out like a stop signal.

Here’s a link to Maggie Hendricks’ rant.

The war of words between PrideFC veterans, Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipović and Alistair Overeem is hotter than any smack talk the average fight promoter could ever dream up. Probably because the words tossed around between Cro-Cop and Overeem are deeply passionate and serious. Cro-Cop is provoked and heated to say the least. In recent weeks Overeem called out Cro-Cop. The first blow came from Overeem when he called the legendary Croatian kickboxer a “chicken.” Then this insult was soon followed when the Dutch fighter called Cro-Cop “old” as if to insinuate that Mirko’s fight career was over.

And many do argue that the future of Cro-Cop’s career is on the line at Dream 6. Previously a dominant force in Japan just a few years ago, Cro-Cop experienced a lackluster performance recently  in the UFC octagon with a smashing KO loss to Gabriel Gonzaga and a decision loss to Cheick Kongo. A loss by Cro-Cop during his return to Japan at Dream 6 would not only hurt is fight record, but it would hurt his image as well. Earlier in repsonse to Overeems criticism, Cro-Cop declared that he would tar and feather himself and run around Amsterdam until he is arrested if he is defeated by Overeem.

Below is video footage of Mirko Cro-Cop addresing Overeem’s trash talk as well as working out in preparation for the fights on September 23 in Japan.

Additional Mirko Cro-Cop videos can be found here.

Dream 6 is not just about Cro-Cop and Overeem though. By no means. It’s a classically stacked Japanese fight card featuring a who’s who of MMA fighters not currently scooped up by the UFC or Affliction. There’s many notable and exciting fighters on the event including Melvin Manhoef, Ronaldo de Souza, Sergei Kharitonov and Hayato Sakurai just for starts.

Below is a preview video from HDNet Fights.

 The Official Dream 6 fight card:

Middleweight Grand Prix: Ronaldo de Souza vs. Zelg Galesic
Middleweight Grand Prix: Gegard Mousasi vs. Melvin Manhoef
Middleweight GP Championship: Gegard Mousasi/Melvin Manhoef vs. Ronaldo de Souza/Zelg Galesic
Middleweight Grand Prix reserve: Yoon Dong-sik vs. Andrews Nakahara

Featherweight bout: Hideo Tokoro vs. Atsushi Yamamoto
Heavyweight bout: Mirko Filipovic vs. Alistair Overeem
Heavyweight bout: Sergei Kharitonov vs. Jimmy Ambriz
Middleweight Bout: Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Masakatsu Funaki
Welterweight Bout: Hayato Sakurai vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka
Lightweight Bout: Keita Nakamura vs. Adriano Martins
Middleweight Bout: Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Masanori Tonooka
Lightweight Bout: Shinya Aoki vs. Todd Moore

The official Dream Website

EliteXC Champ KJ Noons Stripped of His Title

KJ Noons was stripped of his EliteXC lightweight title on September 19. The announcement came on Friday by EliteXC’s Head of Fight Operations, Jeremy Lappen.

According to Lappen, Noons was stripped of his title for refusing to defend the belt against Nick Diaz. Noons and Diaz have a history of bad blood that resulted in a post fight riot after a recent Noons victory when Bill Goldberg invited Diaz into the cage for a future fight challenge.  In many minds, Noons was simply taking the high road and possibly even a small bit of revenge in refusing Diaz a shot.

Noons was offered a headline fight for his title defense against Diaz on the upcoming October 4 CBS show that also features EliteXC darlings, Kimbo Slice and Gina Carrano. Jeremy Lappen went on to reveal that Noons was given a second chance for the defense against Diaz on Showtime but continued his stance of refusal.

The EliteXC brass has commented that the move by Noons is extremely bad for his career but kept the door open by saying he still had two fights to honor on his contract and there was still enthusiasm for Noons to fight again on a future EliteXC card. Lappen had no official fight announcement for the now vacant lightweight title.

Below is video footage of the incident between KJ Noons and Nick Diaz that was widely suspected to be choreographed controversy on the part of former EliteXC president, Gary Shaw. Following a victory in his home town, Noons was challenged and insulted by Nick Diaz after Bill Goldberg invited both Nick and his brother Nate (UFC fighter) into the cage. What followed was a lowbrow spectacle more fitting of WWE or possibly even the Jerry Springer Show. Many people in the wake of this unfortunate incident criticized EliteXC for exploiting a vulnerable situation considering the bad blood between the two fighters. A large percentage of fans sided with KJ Noons during the post fight incident as well as presently during his championship dethroning.

Full Contact Talk attended Fight Night 14 at Wild Bill’s in Duluth and caught up to Hardcore Gym fighter Dave Mewborn after his second round victory over Todd Carney. FCT also talked to UFC fighter, Ultimate Fighter 7 cast member and Hardcore Gym fighter, Cale Yarbrough.

For those unfamiliar with the local MMA scene in Atlanta, the massive Wild Bill’s entertainment complex located just outside downtown in Duluth on Interstate 85 hosts sanctioned MMA events nearly every month. Produced by David Oblas’ Undisputed Productions, the “Wild Bill’s Fight Nights” offer the top in MMA competition as well as occasional Muay Thai fights thrown into the mix for good measure.

Tonight’s fight card is stacked featuring Ultimate Fighter alumnus and UFC fighter, Jesse Forbes in a main event against local MMA star, Bernard Rutherford. Wild Bill’s puts on a top level production with bright lights, big sounds and equally big hits. And for about the same amount of money as going to a movie for two, local MMA fans can nearly get ringside for the same amount of cash. Go out and support the local MMA while having some fun and excitement in the process.

Wild Bill’s Fight Night 14, Friday, Sept. 19, 2008. Advance tickets are available through Ticket Master. Tickets are also available at the door. Wild Bills, 2075 Market St. Duluth, GA 30096. (678) 473-1000. Doors open at 8:30 PM.

Full Fight Card:

Fight 1: Amateur MMA
150 Lbs
Artie Gaddist Vs Greg Lawrence

Fight 2: Amateur Mma
170 Lbs
Steele Mccall Vs Joey Martin

Fight 3: Amateur Muay Thai
185 Lbs
Roger Streeter Vs Mike Gerbick

Fight 4: Amateur MMA
135 Lbs
Jeremy Barrett Vs Cody Black

Fight 5: Pro MMA
Heavyweight
Robert Alexander Vs Scott Barrett

Fight 6: Pro MMA
171 Lbs
Jason Wiggins Vs Jeff Boudreaux

Fight 7: Pro MMA
165 Lbs
Kalvin Hackney Vs Lance Thompson

Fight 8: Pro MMA
186 Lbs
Dave Vitkay Vs Steve Sawyer

Fight 9: Pro MMA
195 Lbs
Todd Carney Vs Dave Mewborn

Main Event
205 Lbs
Jesse Forbes Vs Bernard Rutherford