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(All events on Oahu, unless noted)
2005
11/14/05
3rd American National BJJ Championships
(Torrance Unified School District, Torrance, CA )
10/29-30/05
Brazilian Team Titles
(Equipes)
(Brazil)
8/27-28/05
International
Masters & Seniors BJJ Tournament
(Tijuca Tenis Clube, Tijuca, Brazil)
7/23-31/05
World BJJ
Championships (Mundial)
(Tijuca Tenis Clube, Tijuca, Brazil)
7/21-23/05
World Cup of BJJ
(BJJ)
(São Paulo, Brazil)
5/7-8 & 14-15 & 21-22/05
Brazilian National BJJ Tournament
(Youth, Adult, Master & Senior)
(Tijuca Tenis Clube, Tijuca, Brazil?)
4/1-3/05
Pan American
& Team Title USA vs Brazil BJJ Tournament
(BJJ)
(California State University Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA)
3/05
SUMA
(Kickboxing)
(Hyatt Waikiki)
3/12/05
The Second Annual Maui
Jiu-Jitsu Open
BJJ tournament
(BJJ)
(Maui War Memorial Gym, Wailuku, Hawaii)
3/6-7/05
Hawaii State High School Wrestling Championships
(Blaisdell Arena)
3/5/04
So You Think You Tough 7
(Boxing, MMA)
(Kauai)
2/27/05
2005 Hawaiian Championship
of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
(BJJ & Submission Grappling)
(Saint Louis H.S. Gym)
2/5/05
UFC 51: Super Saturday
(MMA)
(Las Vegas, NV)
1/29/05
Kid's BJJ Tournament
(BJJ)
(Relson Gracie Main Academy, Honolulu)
1/22/05
Punishment In
Paradise 9:
Hawaii vs. Mainland
(MMA, Kickboxing)
(Kapolei H.S. Gym)
|
|
January 2005 News
Part 2
Wednesday night and Sunday
classes (w/ a kids' class) now offered!
 
For the special Onzuka.com
price, click on one of these banners above! |
Tuesdays at 8:30PM on
Olelo Channel 52
New Time! |
Quote
of the Day
"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."
Milton Berle, 1908-2002, American Comedian known as "Uncle
Miltie"
|
BLOODLINE
Presents
PUNISHMENT
IN PARADISE
"GAME TO THE END"
Middleweight Class A (3x5 Minute Rounds)
Shigetoshi
Iwase (#8 Ranked Shooto, Japan) Vs. Ronald “Machine Gun”
Jhun
Light
Heavyweight Class B (2x5 Minute Rounds)
Kaimi
Santiago (Puna Boyz, Hilo) Vs. Casey Daniels (Team MMAD, Kailua)
Middleweight
Class B (2x5 Minute Rounds)
Sugar
Shane Nelson (BJ Penn MMA, Hilo) Vs. Kaleo Kwon (Eastisdaz, Waimanalo)
145
LBS. Class B (2x5 Minute Rounds)
Iwi
Akano (BJ Penn MMA, Hilo) Vs. Kevin Delima (Bulls Pen, Kalihi)
135lbs.
Class B (2x5 Minute Rounds)
Jamar
(808 F.F, Waipahu) Vs Mark Oshiro (Bulls Pen, Kalihi)
145lbs.
Class B (2x5 Minute Rounds)
Kean
Vesa (BJ Penn MMA) Vs. Maluhia Kuahiwinui (Puna Boyz, Hilo)
160lbs.
Class B (2x5 Minute Rounds)
Rob
Villapondo (808 F.F, Waipahu) Vs. Dean Lista (HMC, Kalihi)
135lbs.
Class B (2x5 Minute Rounds)
Precio
Nierras (Freelance, Kalihi) Vs. Ryan Lee (Bulls Pen, Waipahu)
Light
Heavyweight Class B (2x5 Minute Rounds)
Kimo
Wolfel (Eastsidaz, Waimanalo) Vs. Steve Byrnes (Bulls Pen, Kalihi)
160lbs.
Kickboxing (3x1 ½ Minute Rounds)
John
Menedez (California) Vs, John Kalaheo (Koden Kan, Waimanalo)
172lbs.
Kickboxing Bout (3x1 1/2 Minute Rounds)
Alan
Kekahuna (Freelance, Mililani) Vs. Walter Hao (Animal House,
Ewa Beach)
Exhibition
Bout (3x1 Minute Rounds)
Hansen
Apo (Koden Kan, Waimanalo) Vs. Henry (Bulls Pen, Kalihi)
123lbs.
Kickboxing (3x11/2 Minute Rounds)
Bruce
Niimoto (Jesus Is Lord, Waipahu) Vs. Koichi Tanji (HMC, Kalihi)
PRESALE
TICKETS TIL FRIDAY!
Save
yourself $10.00 and get your tickets by friday night, Tickets
are just $25.00 so don't wait to last minute. At En Fuego's @
630pm Friday will be the last day to get them. |
UFC
REALITY SHOW FLOPS ACCORDING TO PRELIMINARY RATINGS
The
UFC's supposedly homo-erotic promo for their reality show.
Reports
have come out that the UFC reality show on Spike TV, entitled
'The Ultimate Fighter', drew a measely 31,000 viewers in the
city of Los Angeles. Just to give you an idea, the city of Los
Angeles has a population that is just over 10 million people.
It's
not known yet what the surrounding areas in California did, but
the preliminary figures are not a good sign.
Almost
all of the NHB/MMA fanbase complained vehemontly that the show
catered to much to the homosexual demographic. In fact, many
marketing experts have claimed that the show seems to be aimed
to the homosexual demographic as well.
Regardless
of pitifully low ratings or whether the show seems to aim to
the homosexual demographic or not, UFC president (and former
boxercize aerobics instructor) Dana White believes the show will
still be a success. White told the following to the media:
"It's
a real good TV show. I really like it. I'm happy with the way
it came out. Going into it, we knew it was the right concept...."
-Dana White
Source: Fight Sport
|
CUNHA
HELPING TO TRAIN 'PELE' AND ANDERSON SILVA
Brazilian
magazine 'Tatame' reports that former long-time Chute Boxe trainer
and athlete Sergio Cunha will be helping to train former teammates
Jose 'Pele' Landi-Jons and Anderson Silva.
Cunha
recently left Chute Boxe to start his own team and concentrate
on the SHOOTO Brazil promotion which he helps to co-promote.
Cunha's team will be known as 'SHOOTO Brazil Dojo'.
Cunha
told Tatame that he, Pele, and Anderson Silva all have their
own teams, and he is only training them with their Muay Thai.
Source: Fight Sport
|
PRIDE
29 NEWS
Below
are three matchups and some fighters that DSE/PRIDE will most
likely announce for their PRIDE 29 card on February 22nd:
Unofficial
matchups:
Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic vs. Mark Coleman or Mark Hunt
Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson vs. Rogerio 'Minotoro' Nogueira
Ryan Gracie vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
Possible
participants (both official and unofficial):
Ricardo Arona
Mario Sperry
Paulo Filho
Sergei Kharitonov
Alistair Overeem
Hirotaka Yokoi
Akira Shoji
Source: Fight Sport
|
Quote
of the Day
"A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she
is until you put her in hot water."
Nancy Reagan, Former First Lady of the United States
|
FIRST
EPISODE OF ULTIMATE FIGHTER REACTION TO THE SHOW
Personally,
I thought the show was great. It had an American Chopper feel
(another show that I love). It did show another side of the sport
that many people don't see, professional level training and conditioning
as well as various personalities of fighters. These personalities
range from party animals, disciplined students of the game, quiet
tough guys, and unsure self-conscious people just trying to belong.
People are people and some of the comments below are aiming on
trying to make people in to all courteous good representatives
of MMA. Let the fighters be themselves which are fun to watch
as long as they don't go on the street and beat up people for
no reason. Keep the fighting in the ring and you as long as you
are not hurting anyone, let them be themselves. After the one
episode, I am hooked and can't wait until the next episode comes
on.
Also,
another show that was great as well was Untold which was a expansion
on the Smashing Machine show and elaborates more on Mark Coleman
as well.
Mike
Fight fans had to wait a little longer than they first thought.
The WWE went over about 10 minutes, so it's unknown if some people
tuned in at 11, didn't see the show and turned it off. The other
surprise was the fact that on the west coast the show aired at
8pm, not 11pm like many thought.
The
good news was the fact the WWE show went seemless into the Ultimate
Fighter tv show, meaning no commercials. Hopefully that would
keep the wrestling crowd and introduced them right into the show.
Hopefully they were hooked from the beginning.
The
MMA fans were hooked months ago when they heard there would be
MMA on Free TV and the UFC delivered. We saw it all. Chris Leben,
Team Quest fighter, getting drunk...then wizzing on the bed of
one of the competitors, while falling asleep at 2:30 in the morning.
What was more amazing was to see Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture
wake up the guys at 5:00 am and Leben still performing well in
training.
We
already have our villian in Leben. We have some good guys, we
have drama and we have fighters. Should be an interesting show
over the next few weeks. What did you guys think of the show?
Here's some of your opinions off the Soundoff Forum.
-
I thought the show was well produced. I was amazed to see fighters
on the show that I have heard before. Names like Forrest Griffen,
Chris Leben, Mick Swick, Bobby Southworth, Nathan Quarry and
others was really cool to see as I thought it was going to be
a bunch of guys no one ever heard of before. Some of these guys
have the look and personality to go far in the show. It has the
feel of that WWE tough enough but seeing the training that they
go through, it looks a lot tougher. There has to have been a
couple of fights because i can see some of these guys lose their
cool. I will definitely being watching this every week. - Drankakeg
-
This was the first show. They have to lay a little groundwork
first and introduce us to the people in the house. Randy and
chuck appear to be more " head coaches" who lead the
teams while the three guys concentrate in actual specific area's.
I think the drama is great. I want to get to know the fighter's.
If you just want to watch fights put your greatest hits DVD in.
My only complaint would be that I'm no nearer to understanding
grappling. The usual "ADD" jump cuts made the training
sequences hard to comprehend. But this is the FIRST show. there
is still plenty of time to get into clearer footage of fighters
training. - Dratz
-
This show just set the sport back. Wasn't the goal to promote
the UFC as legit? I thought we wanted to showcase the best athletes
that are well spoken. We gave national TV a couple of buffoons.
I think Zuffa forgot what they orginially wanted to promote.
- Chris T
-
Overall the show was great. Seems as though Randy is the lead,
which I was a little dissapointed in. Thought Chuck would have
more to say but it is just the first episode and Randy is older
and seems more comfortable in the coaching role. Pissing on a
guys pillow seems totally stupid and I would love to see Leben
get his ass handed to him for it but I don't see the canadian
doing it.It does however open up plenty of room for criticism
from the general public to dismiss US as mindless childlike brutes.Leben
reminds me of clowns from High school but I guess thats what
the UFC wanted to achieve. Seems like they want him remembered....for
whatever reason.
Whatever
the reason to have that girl in the body suit take charge of
the gym and have Randy and Chuck get all the fighters to come
around and listen to her....I hate it! I see no neeed for T-N-A
to sell the UFC. Edit her! Does anyone even look her in the eye
or are they constantly staring at her ass. Want to make it interesting.
Send her out on a date with Leben. Really get a kick out of the
Chuck and Randy giggles at the fighters.Thought that was pretty
funny. Don't see Chuck beating Randy in the next fight because
it seems as though Chuck sees him as an older teacher or something.
Too much respect. Maybe I'm reading too much into this! Overall......Great
show,looking foward to next week. - Harberratt
-
I didn't like it. If the concept was to draw in a new fan element
it failed IMO. The first twenty minutes were critical, and they
screwed it up. Instead of introducing the UFC, Chuck and Randy
as the pinnacle to which these guys achieve, they started a b.s.
heel/babyface storyline with Leben and that poor guy from Canada.
I find it troubling that the first twenty minutes involved these
aspiring athletes immediately breaking out the booze, engaging
in pillow tussles and pissing on one another's bedding.
The
training stuff saved the day, but even then Randy and Chuck were
more like potted plants than engaged trainers/coaches. I'll personally
give the show one more week (although I see from the preview
clip that next week's episode has some drama around anti-hero
Leben again as well as some stupid stunt competitions). I fear
that this show is not going to do very well in either highlighting
the more serious and professional MMA warriors or in the ratings.
Actually, Steve Irwin is doing as much grappling on Conan O'Brien
right now as we saw from the 16 competitors tonight. - Walt
The
Ultimate Fighter Feedback : http://www.spiketv.com/interact/feedback/feedback.jhtml
Next
Show Time: Friday January 21, 12:00 AM (ET/PT)
The Ultimate Fighter Upcoming Episodes
Fri,
January 21 @ 12:00 AM Sat, January 22 @ 7:00 PM Sun, January
23 @ 5:00 PM Mon, January 24 @ 11:00 PM Fri, January 28 @ 12:00
AM Sat, January 29 @ 7:00 PM Sun, January 30 @ 5:00 PM
Source: MMA Weekly
|
FIRST
A TV SHOW....MOVIE IS NEXT
The UFC launched a TV show yesterday on Spike TV called the Ultimate
Fighter. TV isn't the only thing Zuffa has been working on. Get
ready for UFC the Movie to begin taping in the upcoming months.
UFC
President Dana White told MMAWeekly "We are not really in
negotiations anymore. We did the (movie) deal. John Hurtsfeld
is going to be the director and writer of the movie...."
So
who will star in the lead row for the movie? The UFC President
said "As far as actors go, I've been friends with Mark Wahlberg
for a long time and John Hurtsfeld is friends with him too. So,
he and I are both pushing for Wahlberg to be the lead in the
movie but we don't have a deal with him yet."
So
how much money is it going to cost the UFC to produce? Nothing
according to White. "This movie isn't' costing us a dime.
It's a studio deal."
There
are two studios right now negotiating to be the studios to get
the opportunity to make the movie.
"The
script isn't even done yet." White said. "The premise
of the movie is just hanging around with the fighters and an
inside glimpse into the fight world. The director will be flying
out to spend a couple of weeks with the Miletich Camp and has
already visited the R-1 Training center."
Source: MMA Weekly
|
BUENTELLO
PROMISES STAND UP FIGHT VS EILERS
Paul Buentello will make his UFC debut at UFC 51 when he enters
the octagon to face Justin Eilers. Buentello was the featured
guest on MMAWeekly SoundOff Radio Monday and the most recent
edition to our 18 fighters in 18 days segment. Paul talked about
the hand injury that kept him off the UFC 50 card and his fight
with Eilers.
Paul
broke his hand back in December of 2003. He re-injured that hand
and was forced to pull out of his scheduled fight with Tra Telligman
at UFC 50. "It was very frustrating," said Buentello.
"I've been in this sport going on almost eight years now
and waiting on that call to get there (to the UFC). It's pretty
devastating when, you know, you want to go fight no matter how
bad my hand was hurting. It was hurting pretty bad but I wanted
to suck it up and do it." Buentello was advised by his management
and trainers to not "suck it up and do it."
Paul
looked back on it all with an optimistic point of view. He said,
"Then again, there's are reason for everything. I think
this is it because, you know, really the show fell apart, UFC
50. This UFC 51 looks like a better shot, a better show. You
know, there's going to be a lot of hype behind it so, I'm looking
real forward to it."
The
only thing different in training for Buentello since the most
recent hand injury is he now attends a sport clinic to receive
therapy on his hand. Paul explained, "The issue was that
I had a lot of scar tissue built up. You know, around the fingers
and around the break and stuff. So, at sport club, they do a
treatment called Active Release Treatment and they release all
that scar tissue and get my flexibility back. That was the problem,
I didn't have enough flexibility in him hand to throw a punch.
When I would land a punch, it would flex my fingers back into
my palm and it gave a little sharp pain.....that's what we worked
out of my hand was the scar tissue."
Looking
at his opponent, Buentello had this to say about Justin Eilers.
"His game is, he comes really hard. Most times I look at
a fighter and I know I have to weather his storm. You know, like,
weather his storm and then pull it out and go for the win but
with Justin, he has no quit. He has a lot of heart. He comes
very hard. He's not going to stop. We could be in the third round
and he's still going to throw his punches just as hard as he
did in the first round. And, he doesn't back up at all."
Some
fighters don't like to tell their game plan going into fights.
Buentello isn't one of them. "If you look at my track record,
I don't go for any shots. I don't go for any double legs. I haven't
taken anyone down in my whole career....I don't look for the
shot. I stay to my bread and butter which is standing."
He added, "My whole motto is, let the hands go and see what
happens."
Discussing
the fight itself, Paul commented, "Me and Justin are going
to come in there, you know, he's never been dropped. I've never
been dropped. His fights really haven't gone the distance. My
fights haven't been to the distance. He goes toe-to-toe and I
go toe-to-toe. It's going to be an awesome fight. I just hope
the UFC puts it on the main card and let people see what heavyweights
are like today. You know, let us go, let us get in there and
let us show the public."
Further
commenting on the fight, Buentello said, "I don't see it
going to a judges decision. I tell you that right now. I know
he doesn't want it to go the judges and I don't want it to go
to the judges because two strikers that throw big bombs, if it
goes to the judges decision, it's going to be a hard fight to
call. I know he's expecting it not to go to the judges and I'm
not either."
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Quote
of the Day
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That
word is love."
Sophocles, 496 BC - 406 BC, Greek Tragic Dramatist
|
2005
Hawaii State/Regional Boxing Championship Results
Kawano/Tiki Ent. Boxing Club won 4 out of the 8 weight classes
in the 2005 Hawaii State/Regional Boxing Championship. Winning
their respective weight classes were
119lbs- Amadeo Ezzo-White (Kawano/Tike Ent. B.C.),
132- Isaac Arasato (Palolo B.C.),
141- Jeffrey Pelen Jr.( Waianae B.C.),
152- Brent Rodrigues (Palolo B.C.),
165- Shawn Murphy (Ohana B.C.),
178- Filipo Toelau (Kawano/Tiki Ent. B.C.),
201- Ryan Bolen (Kawano/Tiki Ent. B.C.),
201+ -Tinei Su'a,
Female Champions are
101- Colleen Loo (Pearlside B.C.),
132- Ilima Vicente (Team Ricans),
145- Tiana Over (Southside, Maui B.C.),
154- Jenna-Lyn Oda (East Oahu Waimanalo B.C.),
165- Chanelle Valdez (Evolution B.C.).
Outstanding Awards went to- Sportsmanship Award- Phillip Ramirez
(Kalakaua B.C.),
Outstanding Bout- Shawn Murphy -vs- Zach Ilarraza (Wailuku, Maui
B.C.),
Outstanding Boxer- Brent Rodrigues,
Team Championship- Kawano/Tiki Ent. Boxing Club.
Champions
advance to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO.
on March 13 to the 20th. for the 2005 U.S. Championships (Men
and Womens).
Any
Questions Email me back or call me at 808-542-1181 cell.
Source:
Bruce Kawano
|
Quarry
talks Ultimate Fighter
As the premier of Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter"
quickly approaches MMA Weekly's Mick Hammond managed to speak
to one of the show's participants, Nathan "Rock" Quarry,
about the upcoming show. Quarry, a member of Team Quest, is one
of 3 individuals from Quest to be appearing on the show along
with Green Team Leader Randy Couture and fellow middleweight
contender Chris Leben. Quarry took the time to discuss the reality
show and his thoughts on many issues surrounding it.
With
all shows on television there comes casting, the process of bringing
in individuals to fit the needs of the show. Quarry discussed
his thoughts on how he felt Spike TV cast the series, "They
were definitely looking for people who could be contenders with
polished skills and work ethic. They were also looking to showcase
personalities and show people that we are not just mindless barbarians.
We are regular people like anyone and like all reality shows
they brought in personalities to showcase different ways people
are."
Prior
to the casting of the series, many of the fighters may have known
who the others were within the community but few knew each other
on a personal basis. For Quarry he had an already established
connection with Leben and Couture, but he also knew one of the
other competitors, Forrest Griffen, "He's from Hardcore
Gym, which is part of Straight Blast (a team that Quarry was
associated with prior to Team Quest). I met him with Roy and
Adam Singer when I had gone down for a seminar with Matt Thorton,
they are good people, really nice people."
Even
without knowing many of the competitors ahead of time it was
easy for Quarry to make a strong connection to the other competitors
in his time on the show, "There were definitely some good
bonds made in those two months. I got a chance to meet good people
in the same direction with similar goals and work ethic. We all
went in with something in common, of course we had differences
in opinions, lifestyles, and the way we think, but for the most
part they are all really good guys. I've kept in contact with
a few of them, Mike Swick I've kept in contact with the most,
also Alex Karalexis, Alex Schoenauer, and just got an email from
Josh Rafferty the other day."
With
the show's premier just a few days away, Quarry seemed cautiously
optimistic in how he represented himself during shooting, "I
feel I conducted myself with dignity the entire two months and
set a good example for my daughter. I didn't want to embarrass
her or have actions that were less than exemplary. Lots of things
happened that were kind of personal and you can't be an automaton
24 hours a day, there were emotions that came out and knowing
those real emotions are totally out there and are going to be
shown around the world is an interesting thing. You're going
to be seeing parts of me that I don't show most people who know
me personally and it's going to be shown to complete strangers."
Quarry
continued, "I knew it was going to be a challenge being
around people 24 hours a day. I kept in mind I was representing
the sport and myself and I didn't want to be embarrassed by myself.
I want my daughter to look at this and be proud. I went in trying
to be myself but also be the best of myself. I really wanted
to keep the temper and anything else that could be negative to
minimal."
When
the subject of how the show could shape the opinions of viewers
who are unfamiliar with our sport, Quarry was enthusiastic with
how he felt about the prospect, "I'm excited to see where
this show is going to take us. I'm looking forward to the opportunities
it will provide and doors it will open. The production, viewpoint,
challenges, training depicted and interaction between all of
us as housemates and teammates will open people's eyes. I hope
enough people hear about the show to get to see it. Even if it
wasn't ultimate fighting it would still be phenomenal. Yes, it
is a soap opera sometimes, a few episodes especially, but that's
what makes people care about the sport in reality, the human
interaction we have and the personalities that come through."
Quarry
explained, "How many people know Joe Fraizer or others in
boxing? Ask anybody on the street about boxing and they will
say Mohammed Ali. He was great, but there was guys like Rocky
Marciano who was undefeated as a heavyweight. Many only know
Ali because of his character and they could relate. They don't
fall in love with promotions; they fall in love with fighters
who have personality. This show will showcase these fighters
as people with personalities, desires, dreams, and fears, fears
we overcome. That gives people someone to root for, which is
more than just interest in the sport, they will follow the individual
fighters."
"I
don't follow many sports, because I don't know the people involved.
If I had a friend who was playing a sport I would tune in and
root for him and have a connection with the sport through them.
Ultimate fighters haven't had that opportunity yet with people
knowing the individuals like they might in other sports. When
you ask people about our sport most say Royce Gracie because
Royce was the first person that people could see his struggle
and identify with. His size is what he overcame to become a champion,
imagine how great it would be for people to know about him personally
or his family and how he got to where he was," concluded
Quarry.
With
television exposure always comes an intimate connection many
viewers have with the people they watch on TV. They begin to
feel as if they know the people they are watching and with a
reality show it's a much deeper situation as the viewer is not
seeing a character, but rather the individual's true self. When
asked how he felt about the thought of people having this connection
with him Quarry said, "I'd be surprised if it would happen
with me. All I can say is I'll welcome it to the best of my ability.
I treat people like how I would like to be treated. I like to
make people feel comfortable. If people look at what I do and
it gives them motivation or whatever it's great. If they want
to come up to me I'd be all for it. I've seen people on TV every
night coming into my home and if I saw them walking down the
street I may do the same thing."
With
unscripted television there always comes a mass of editing to
take hours of footage and condense it into hour-long episodes.
With The Ultimate Fighter, participants were practically filmed
24 hours a day for two months, how Spike TV will cut the footage
down to 12 episodes had Quarry curious, "Hopefully it'll
come out on DVD and there will be extras. I don't understand
how they do it. They could have done a whole episode off of each
individual day. It's amazing they'll be able to condense it down
so much. It's such a big process the first episode could have
easily been 4-5 hours long itself."
Along
with editing the footage to jam two months worth of footage into
12 hours, there comes the possibility that the editing process
may mislead the viewer on the truth of situations. Quarry seemed
confident that the producers of The Ultimate Fighter would not
have any reason to "creatively edit" situations to
create more drama, "If that's the case I would be surprised.
To me that kind of sounds like they need some kind of magical
editing where they are trying to get something that really isn't
there, they have no reason to do that because believe me it's
all there. They didn't have to make any editing to make someone
look good, bad, grown up, immature, or someone is in over their
heads, it's all in the way we were chosen to be in the show.
We all fit a perfect role, it's going to come across perfectly,
our individual personalities and how people change for the better
or worse. I'm not too worried on how they edit me. I feel I did
the right thing in 99% of the situations. I didn't sense any
animosity with the production team so I don't think they are
looking to pull a fast one on us."
When
asked what his role on the TV show was, Quarry said, " I'm
a steadfast competitor, going in to do my best no matter what
came about and going in to do the right thing. That's what I
tried to do. While this is a game with a big prize at the end,
there is no amount of money that would make me sell myself, integrity,
and honor for. If they want me to do something that compromises
my moral fabric, I would leave, it's better to do the right thing
than do something sleazy to get ahead."
The
conversation concluded with Quarry reiterating his thoughts on
what this show means to the sport of MMA, "I want people
to really see what kind of athletes we are, how hard working
we are for our goals. Our sport is barely out of the womb, they
don't know us or how tough we are to undergo all this training
for no money. All for the love of the sport. We are the true
gladiators of today, we go in and fight and are entertainers.
I don't take it too seriously, I'm not a badass trying to show
how I like to beat up people, I want people to appreciate our
worth ethic and come away from this with a better idea of who
we are and what our sport is really about."
Source: MMA Weekly
|
CHONAN
INTERESTED IN UFC WELTERWEIGHT CLASS
Ryo Chonan
Ryo
Chonan recently made the following statement, when asked if he'd
one day like to compete in the UFC:
"I
hope to fight in UFC. The rule that allows elbows is very atractive
for me. It is said that PRIDE fighter has a weak point when an
opponent pushes him to the cage, but I found out how to escape
from it. This is my original technique.
If
I diet down to the welterweight class, I can be on top of the
UFC. Come on everybody!!"
Source: Fight Sport
|
SHOJI
NEWS
Akira Shoji
The
Japanese media is saying that Akira Shoji will be on the next
PRIDE card in February.
Sources
in the Japanese media are saying that DSE/PRIDE has put pressure
on Shoji to win his upcoming fight or risked being dropped from
the promotion.
Source: Fight Sport
|
|
1/17/05 Happy Martin Luther King Jr.
Day! |
Quote
of the Day
"If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not
be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old."
James A. Garfield, 1831-1881, 20th President of the United States
|
Brazilian
Portuguese Language Classes!
The Farrington Community School for Adults' Brazilian Portuguese
class will start
on 2/05 so call & register.
They can go to website: Farrington Community School for Adults.
http://165.248.6.166/data/adulteducclasses.asp?Submit=Submit&location=477&coursetypedin
We
need at least 2 more students to keep the class open. Registration
closed yesterday but they always accept more if they come in
right away. Otherwise I take another semester off & sleep
in on Saturdays.
It's
only a little more than $30 and $26 for books for a steal in
learning Portuguese in a relaxed environment. You need to jump
on this opportunity!
Saturdays
February 5, 2005 to April 16, 2005
8:30 am to 11:30 am
Farrington High School Room U202
CONVERSATIONAL
BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE
NUTSHELL COURSE DESCRIPTION
With concentration on everyday, modern Brazilian usage, special
attention is paid to quickly gain understanding of polite, informal
and colloquial language, verb conjugations, past & present
tenses, masculine-feminine nouns & adjectives (big obstacles
in Romance language-learning) with goals of attaining native
pronunciation and fluency of speech. Brazilian regional variations
in proununciation and vocabulary are recognized.
This
class is ideal for:
1) Those interested in travel to Brazil
2) English speakers with Brazilian friends/spouses/partners
3) Practitioners of Brazilian martial arts (Capoeira, Jiu Jitsu)
4) Speakers/students of other Latin-derived languages.
ABOUT
THE INSTRUCTOR:
Sandy
Tsukiyama de Oliveira, a Honolulu native, was drawn to the musical
culture of Brazil while studying for her BA in Ethnomusicology
at UH Manoa in the 1970s. Portuguese language studies were at
UH-Manoa with Dr. Stefan Baciu, and at Windward Commnunity School
for Adults with Cecy de Souza Browne. Sandy worked as a Spanish
& Portuguese-speaking tour escort for over 10 years receiving
hands-on experience in the language locally while promoting the
Hawaii visitor industry.
She
lived in Rio de Janeiro, from 1980-83; spending the first year
at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Escola de Música
on Rotary International Post-Graduate Fellowship for International
Understanding, afterward working as a vocalist in upscale restaurant/bars
and teaching English.
Performing
in Brazilian music groups (The Rio Trio, Mistura, Banda Carioca)
after her return to Hawaii, Sandy maintained her contact with
Brazilian culture in the community while pursuing education in
simultaneous conference interpretation at UH Manoa Center for
Interpretation and Translation Studies. She then continued in
the field of Secondary Education, receiving certification for
Spanish and Special Education.
Sandy
has worked freelance as an English/Spanish/Portuguese interpreter/translator,
as well as in Federal and State courts, for the Honolulu Police
Dept., US Immigration and Naturalization Service, various international
conferences, is on staff for the Bilingual Access Line of Helping
Hands Hawaii and is a member of the Hawaii Interpreters and Translators
Assn. Currently a Special Education teacher at Roosevelt High
School, she has been teaching Portuguese at FCSA for the past
four years.
TEXTBOOK:
Fala Brazil! Português Para Estrangeiros
by Pierre Coudry & Elizabeth Fontão (Pontes Editores)
Accompanying cassettes/CD available
RECOMMENDED
SUPPLEMENTAL BOOKS:
501
Portuguese verbs
by John J. Nitti & Michael J. Ferreira (Barron's)
Portuguese
Verbs and Essentials of Grammar
by Sue Tyson-Ward (Passport Books) |
The
Ultimate Fighter Is The Ultimate Risk
Oceanic
Channel 559 at 9:00 PM
January 17th could be the biggest day in UFC history and the
beginning of something very big, or it could be the worst and
the beginning of something very bad.
Either
way it's going to be a memorable date, because it's the debut
of UFC's reality show "The Ultimate Fighter" on Spike
TV, airing after WWE Raw at 11pm.
Realistically,
the show is the make or break move for the UFC. If this show
succeeds, it could lead to more television exposure on Spike
TV in the form of another TV deal, or it may lead to a show on
another network as the success of "The Ultimate Fighter"
could prove the UFC a draw on television, and anyone who has
watched just a tiny amount of television in their lives knows
that networks are always looking for the next big fad.
If
this show fails, it could lead to the UFC's demise. The reason
for this is because its failure may send a message to network
executives that the UFCis not a strong enough product to draw
television ratings. Everyone involved in mixed martial arts during
the past four years or so has seen how difficult it is to get
the UFC product on television and convince these network types
that the promotion has the capability to draw ratings. Imagine
how difficult it would be, then, to get back on TV after already
being there and failing.
Should
"The Ultimate Fighter" fail and make it nearly impossible
for the UFC to find another television deal, that would limit
how successful the company could be because the ultimate goal
of the UFC is to use a free TV show as a vehicle to hype fighters,
feuds and matches in order to expose the product to a wider audience
and thus generate far more money not only in pay per view revenue,
but in merchandising and licensing and TV rights fees or ad fees,
and so on and so forth. If you take out the possibility of free
TV, then Zuffa realistically has little to work towards but to
simply keep expenses down and try to promote UFC pay per views
on a tight budget, which is pretty much what they are doing now.
The
nuts and bolts of the show is that there will be sixteen fighters
divided up into two teams, one team coached by Randy Couture
and the opposing team by Chuck Liddell, and each episode will
feature a training challenge competition between the teams, with
the winning team controlling which combatants must fight and
face elimination. One fighter from each team will fight in each
episode, with the loser being eliminated from the show. The remaining
two fighters from each of the two weight divisions will fight
during a two-hour live special on Spike TV. The show runs for
fifteen episodes, ending in April.
April
is the same month for which UFC 52 with the rematch between Randy
Couture and Chuck Liddell for the Light-Heavyweight title will
take place. MMAWeekly has reported that the final episode for
the show will take place on Saturday, April 9th with UFC 52 taking
place a couple of weeks later. They are also reporting that Matt
Hughes vs. Frank Trigg could take place on the final episode,
as well, among other fights featuring current UFC competitors.
Trigg
against Hughes isn't set in stone, because I would assume that
nothing is set in stone for that show at this point in time.
My opinion is that, if it is possible, they should book a heavyweight
title match on the live finals as opposed to a welterweight title
match. Normally, I would think that's a bad idea, since generally
the heavyweight division is a draw in mixed martial arts (or
boxing or pro wrestling or whatever) and you don't want to give
away a fight on free TV that people will pay good money to watch
on pay per view. That's why having the light-heavyweight title
match between Couture and Liddell on free TV would be a terrible
move, and it's shrewd for Zuffa to have that fight on pay per
view because there's more opportunity with a major fight to make
money from pay per view revenue.
With
the UFC heavyweight division actually being less popular than
the light-heavyweight division, I think having a heavyweight
title match on what will hopefully be a highly-rated free television
show may give the heavyweight division some exposure that it
could certainly use, as none of the current UFC heavyweight contenders
are breakthrough stars.
The
problem, however, in having a heavyweight title match on the
final episode of "The Ultimate Fighter" in April is
that the status of the heavyweight division is still murky. The
current champion, Frank Mir, may still be out due to complications
from injuries suffered in his motorcycle crash a few months ago.
Zuffa will be deciding on an interim champion in February in
a fight between Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski.
Now,
if Mir were back in time to train for a fight in April, a unification
match between Mir and the winner of the Sylvia-Arlovski fight
would be ideal for the Spike TV special. But with Mir's injury
status, that, at the moment, would seem unlikely. If Arlovski
wins, he could be pitted against Justin Eilers, who was impressive
in his UFC debut with a knockout win over Mike Kyle a few months
ago, and who will most likely be on the February card. Eilers
has a lot of potential as a star in the heavyweight division,
in my
opinion, but should Sylvia defeat Arlovski and Mir be unable
to fight at that point, Eilers being matched up against Sylvia
would be a bad idea because they both train together.
I
think if David Terrell were to fight and defeat Evan Tanner (or
whomever) for the UFC Middleweight title at UFC 51 in February,
a Terrell title defense on the final episode of the reality show
would be a better idea than a Trigg vs. Hughes match because
Terrell is a new fighter who is fresh who I also believe is very
marketable, plus there is a tremendous amount of depth in the
middleweight division so finding a decent challenger for Terrell
who, on paper, would have an exciting match, should not be too
difficult.
Zuffa
believes that having Trigg vs. Hughes on the final episode is
not a bad idea because their first match from UFC 45 was very
exciting, and odds are they are not going to have a boring match,
as most of Hughes' boring matches revolve around Hughes keeping
his opponent on the ground and not letting him move, as exemplified
in the second and third rounds of Hughes vs. Renato Charuto.
However, Trigg is too good of a wrestler to let Hughes keep him
down, although that doesn't mean they wouldn't have a boring
match, because Sean Sherk is a great wrestler too and his match
with Hughes, at points, was like watching paint dry. The first
Trigg vs. Hughes match was also so quick, that if it went five
rounds, it would be hard to gauge how
dull that fight could be.
The
success of "The Ultimate Fighter" will be measured
in its ability to draw television ratings and expose the star
power of Couture, Liddell and the winners of the show itself
to a wider television audience. It is not about educating people
who otherwise don't care about mixed martial arts as to the finer
points of the mechanics of submissions and striking and such.
If the show draws bad television ratings and it gets pulled by
Spike TV, then it has failed. If the show draws good television
ratings and either leads to an increase in pay per view buys
for the Liddell-Couture rematch, or leads to another TV deal,
or both, or more, then it has succeeded. It's that simple.
Many
people are pointing to the failure of Oscar de la Hoya's reality
show "The Next Great Champ" as a precursor to the failure
of "The Ultimate Fighter". De la Hoya's show drew poor
ratings right out of the gate, which stayed low until Fox pulled
it from its broadcast on their main network on prime time and
dumped the remaining episodes on Fox Sportsnet. The show was
also considered poorly produced and just an overall bad show
(which had nothing to do with the ratings failing since the show
did a bad rating for the first episode, and there's no way people
would know how bad the show was when tuning into the very first
episode), and was a complete flop.
That
particular show was predicated on the popularity of boxing in
mainstream television, but even more on the celebrity of Oscar
De la Hoya, who apparently is not as big of a star to the casual
television audience as Fox had thought.
"The
Ultimate Fighter" is not based on boxing and it's not based
on the celebrity status of any one particular person. Instead
of using someone's star power as a vehicle to generate television
ratings, it's looking to use television ratings as a vehicle
to create star power for the fighters on the show.
Watching
the show, it should be clear to someone who has never seen "ultimate
fighting" before that it is completely different from boxing.
Boxing has lost much of the youth and general mainstream audience,
which would seem like one of the reasons that "The Next
Great Champ" failed to draw interest. Boxing is old and
UFC is new, but that's certainly no guarantee that UFC will catch
on with anyone.
"Sixty-year-old
Sylvester Stallone may be looking for a contender, but the UFC
is looking for a champion," says Dana White in the UFC's
most recent press release regarding the show, as they are already
tying UFC in with boxing by making a comment regarding Stallone's
boxing reality show on NBC.
An
interesting question to look at is whether or not a boxing TV
show would be able to sustain the high rating captured by WWE
Raw by sitting in the 11pm timeslot after Raw is over. In 2005,
I think the boxing audience is very different now from the pro
wrestling audience. The pro wrestling audience has proven many
times in the past that it is only interested in watching pro
wrestling. It will be the pro wrestling audience that makes or
breaks this show, so if the pro wrestling audience is diverse
from the boxing audience and the UFC is more closely related
to a boxing product than to pro wrestling, that may spell trouble
for "The Ultimate Fighter". Zuffa claims to have performed
a poll sometime ago and found that UFC had more appeal with boxing
fans than pro wrestling fans. Well, since this show is airing
after the flagship WWE TV show, then I hope that this poll is
totally wrong.
There
is, of course, a different expectation for the ratings for "The
Ultimate Fighter", on a cable network, and "The Next
Great Champ", on Fox, which is a network that reaches 100%
of the television homes in America. To show the difference, a
3.0 rating for "Next Great Champ" would be terrible,
whereas as 1.0 rating for "Ultimate Fighter" would
be good. Spike TV was happy with the 1.0 that another reality
show called "The Joe Schmo Show" was able to draw at
one point. WWE Raw generally does well above a 3.0; the lesser
WWE shows on Spike generally fall below a 1.0. I don't know what
Spike TV executives are expecting out of this show in terms of
specific ratings, but if I think the overall average rating for
this show falls below the b-level WWE shows, it would be a failure.
What
the television special with the show finals will draw in April
will be interesting. Reality shows like to air the final episode
of their series live in order to keep the mystery of what happens
at the end.
Of
course, live television is tough, and anything can happen live,
so with Zuffa's past bad luck (reference: UFC 33), maybe live
television isn't such a great idea. It would look to be something
that Spike TV would want, since it's best to keep the ending
of the series under wraps, plus there's a level of excitement
for live television that isn't there (although I think that can
be pretty much replicated with live-to-tape), but the finals
simply being live isn't going to draw any extra viewers. It will
be the quality of the show and the intrigue of the product and
the personalities of Liddell, Couture and the show's competitors
that will keep people tuning in to the end, if the even start
tuning in at the beginning.
Revenue
generated by the show itself would be totally different from
"The Next Great Champ" as well, as advertisers pay
far more to air their commercials on a network that has 100%
TV clearance such as Fox as opposed to a less visible cable network
such as Spike. I don't know what Zuffa's agreement is with Spike
TV in regards to advertising revenue, or how much they are getting
paid to produce the show, but if the show generates money of
itself plus leads to more opportunities on free television plus
generates higher pay per view buyrates, then 2005 could become
a very profitable year and the time when UFC starts to reach
its potential as a popular
entertainment form under Zuffa.
Source: Maxfighting |
Ultimate
Fighter Article in Boston Herald
Reality knockout:
Spike TV's `Ultimate Fighter' pulls no punches
By Mark A. Perigard
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Sure,
folks on reality shows get testy with one another, even a little
punchy.
It's
part of the genre.
But
do you really expect to see men knock the bone marrow out of
each other?
Welcome
to the world of ``The Ultimate Fighter,'' a series (debuting
tomorrow at 11:05 p.m. on Spike TV) that makes Fox's short-lived
``Next Great Champ'' look like a game of tag.
Sixteen
aspiring mixed martial arts fighters gather in Las Vegas to train
and duke it out for two multiyear, six-figure contracts with
the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the leader in combat sports.
Those
involved with the show hope it will educate viewers that those
who brave the caged octagon are not blood-thirsty monsters.
``It's
not a bunch of thugs who like to beat people up,'' said series
coach Randy Couture, UFC light heavyweight champion, in a telephone
interview last week. ``It's a bona fide sport in the combat sports
genre.''
The
training isn't for softies, amateurs or armchair jocks. In the
opener, two men suffer injuries that leave them bloodied. Another
spews his breakfast after an intense cardio session.
``It
was definitely the most intense training I had gone through,''
said 27-year-old Whitman native Alex Karalexis, a 4-0 middleweight
fighter and one of three competitors with New England ties.
``The
competition level was set really high. There was always a lot
of pressure on you, a lot of eyes watching you,'' he said.
Elimination
comes not in the form of a vote off the island but a decisive
victory over an opponent in a match.
Couture
and fellow coach Chuck Liddell, UFC light heavyweight contender,
also wield the power to send someone home if they feel he is
not tough enough. The two divide the group of eight middleweights
and eight heavyweights into two mixed teams who will compete
in a series of physical challenges in the episodes to come.
In
typical reality TV fashion, the men must bunk together a la MTV's
``The Real World'' - guaranteeing drama and plenty of bizarre
moments.
During
their first night together, one drunken contender urinates on
a competitor's pillow.
He
later tries to defend his action by saying it was just a ``spritz.''
Another
claims to be a pacifist; one man trains by practicing yoga.
Living
in the house in some ways was more stressful than the actual
training.
``We
were totally sequestered,'' Karalexis said. ``We were shut off
from the outside world. With no television, no radio, no magazines
and no newspapers, we were stuck with each other. There were
no outlets; we were forced to interact with each other and there
was no escaping it.''
Karalexis
is now in Vegas training for his next fight as the series plays
out (all fighters have their licenses suspended for the duration
of the show, Karalexis said, to prevent anyone from figuring
out the show's outcome, which ends in a live two-hour finale
on April 9).
Karalexis,
of course, cannot talk about how he placed on the show. ``I'm
confident in my abilities. My focus was more on the opportunity
of the training and getting the most out of it. It was awesome.
``I
understand what I do isn't for everybody,'' Karalexis said. ``I'm
a licensed fighter and I'm tested and drug tested. . . . We're
not as brutal as some people would think. When people meet me,
say at a dinner table at a wedding, they often seem surprised
when I tell them what I do. `But you seem like such a nice young
man,' they tell me. Well, I am. I hope this educates people on
the sport and they develop some respect and appreciation.''
Source: MMA Weekly |
UFC
51 Odds Update
Joey
Oddessa, a consultant for sportsbook.com and has his brand new
website at BetOddessa.com has posted the latest news on how the
odds are moving on some of the fights. Including wagers on Phil
Baroni's new fight with Pete Sell. The first number is what the
numbers started at. The later of course is what it is now.
Vitor
Belfort -125 Tito Ortiz+105 ..............this bout currently
sits at the same number. There has been 2 way action thus far,
SLIGHTLY more on BELFORT , but NOT enough to move the line. BELFORT
-125/+105.
Andrei
Arlovski -120 Tim Sylvia -100 ........................TIM SYLVIA
is now the FAVORITE at -120/+100. Thre are smaller bets on ARLOVSKI,
but most big bets were on TIM SYLVIA. .
David
Terrell -140 Evan Tanner +120 ......The public criticized me
for opening Terrel the favorite, but it was the right move. TERREL
is being bet UP ALOT. Tanner has gotten some buyback, but TERRELL
is now -175/+155. I still like Tanner.
Nick
Diaz -230 Drew Fickett +190.............Short money on FICKET.
nothing significant , but went to -225/+185 on DIAZ.
Chris
Lytle -110 Karo Parisyan -110.........2 way action........great
line. Hasn't Moved since opening. PK -110/-110.
Joe
Riggs -185 David Loiseau +165 ..........Public money on Riggs....nothing
huge yet.......He moved to -200/+170. Despite public opinion,
I think Loiseau may well be able to pull off the upset of the
night. This line is gonna be interesting nearer to fight time.
Phil
Baroni -300 Pete Sell +250......Line hasnt moved a bit with Baronis
replacement. He is relatively unknown..........small bet on Underdog
may just be the guys taking a shot on the biggeest underdog on
the card.
James
Irvin -130 Mike Kyle +110...........Huge Money on Irvin.....the
newcomer to the UFC. Kyle looks like shit in training and insiders
are taking a shot at the newcoimer. IRVIN is currently the FAVORITE
at -175/+155.
Justin
Eilers -110 Paul Buentello -110 ...........A good amount of money
moving in on EILERS, possibly because he is better known of the
two after his KO win over Mike Kyle in UFC. EILERS sitting at
-145/+125 now.
Source: MMA Weekly |
Quote
of the Day
"One can endure sorrow alone, but it takes two to be glad."
Elbert Hubbard, 1859-1915, American Author and Publisher
|
MMA
Fans Get 10% Off at En Fuego's
at PIP's Meet & Greet
Come down, meet the fighters and taste some of the best food
in the state. The Onzuka brother's recommendation is the garlic
chicken with a side of poke.
Anyone who wears a martial arts related t-shirt (to show support
for the sport) to the Punishment In Paradise Meet and Greet on
Sunday 16th, at 3:00pm at En Fuego Grill & Poke in Kapolei
will receive 10% off their order.
Source:
Tanaka-san
|
FEDOR
VS. 'CRO COP' NEWS
DSE/PRIDE
announced that a heavyweight title fight matchup of Fedor Emelianenko
vs. Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic may take place in June.
However,
the Japanese media is saying that Fedor is now a free agent and
has still not re-signed with DSE/PRIDE.
Source:
Fight Sport
|
Back
in the States, Arlovski Prepares Again for Sylvia and UFC Title
By Loretta Hunt
Remember Andrei Arlovski? It's been about ten months since fight
fans have seen him fight, but with UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank
Mir still out of training with a broken leg sustained in a motorcycle
accident last September, the Belarusian boxer will get his first
go at an interim championship at February 5th‘s UFC 51 versus
former champion Tim Sylvia.
It
won't be the first time the two were scheduled to meet. Up till
a day before UFC 47, Arlovski had his sights set on Sylvia, who
ended up bowing out when he couldn't produce a clean urinalysis
in time following a previous suspension for steroid use. A negative
test came back the next day, while Sylvia watched cageside as
the lively Belarusian picked Hawaiian slugger Wesley "Cabbage"
apart on his feet with a successful "stick and move"
strategy. Was that performance meant for Sylvia? Prediction leans
toward the 6'3" Arlovski using a similar plan on the 6'8"
Sylvia, who will have a sizable reach on him. "That's what
his game plan's going to be," agrees Sylvia, "just
in and out on me. I intend to move just as much as he does."
Back
in Chicago training since November 23rd after a seven month stint
in his homeland, Arlovski has declined to comment on strategy,
yet he does admit for once to have a vested interest in his opponent.
"I am really happy that I have fight against Tim Sylvia,"
the reserved fighter says in English, "because once in interview
he said he [would] knock me out. It will be a great fight. I
like have a fight with guy who have more weight than me."
At
265 pounds, Sylvia is banking on his added twenty-plus pounds
to give him an advantage. "He's a good fighter, but when
he fights bigger guys he doesn't do so well," touts Sylvia.
"He lost against Ricco [Rodriguez at UFC 32] and Pedro [Rizzo
at UFC 36]. He'll lose against me."
"I
lost the fight against Ricco Rodriguez because when I come to
America I have a lot of fun," Arlovski remarks of the loss
some three years ago. "I'm not serious in the training.
I go to the nightlife. I'm not training too much. My fight against
Pedro Rizzo..," he pauses, "he's very tough guy for
UFC. I don't know. He's very good."
Currently
sporting long hair with blond streaks, Arlovski is not surprised
to hear that opponent Sylvia is again calling for the knockout.
"Ah, he said [again]? Of course," Arlovski nods knowingly.
"He has a chance. No problem. This is a fight in the sport.
I remember he said at UFC 47, he said he [could] kick my ass.
He has a chance. Why not? It's a sport. I training hard. I training
three times a day. I train hard and I'll show fans that I have
[been] work hard. I want to live in this country. I do everything
to show my fans I am a good fighter."
Source: FCF
|
COFFEE
GUY EXCLUSIVE: LUTTER VS. PRANGLEY
The matchup of Travis Lutter vs. Trevor Prangley will be taking
place in UFC 52. Both fighters are expected to sing for the fight
in the next few days.
Source:
Fight Sport
|
CHONAN
VS. CARNEIRO
The DEEP promotion announced the matchup of Ryo Chonan vs. Roan
'Jucao' Carneiro for their card on February 12th. Carneiro is
a Brazilian Top Team fighter.
Below
are some of main event matchups for the card that have been announced:
Ryo
Chonan vs. Roan 'Jucao' Carneiro
D. Mishima vs. Taisho
Yoshiro Maeda vs. Masakazu Imanari
Source:
Fight Sport
|
NEW
CAGEFIGHTING EVENT IN JAPAN
GCM
will be promoting a new MMA cagefighting show called 'D.O.G.'.
GCM is a promotion that is basically run by Keishukai (the gym
that Kaoru Uno belongs to).
GCM
promotes shows such as 'Contenders' and 'Demolition'. The First
D.O.G. event will take place on March 12 at Differ Ariake in
Tokyo.
The
matchups will consist of three 5-minute rounds, and some will
consist of two 5-minute rounds. The kicking of a downed opponent
will be allowed. Holding the fence and standing 8-counts after
knockdown will not be allowed.
Two
matchups have so far been announced for this event:
Katsuya Toida vs. Atsushi Yamamoto
Ken Ozawa vs. Miki Shida
Other
fighters scheduled to be on the card:
Eiji Mitsuoka
Yoshin Okami
Hidetaka Monma
Source:
Fight Sport
|
Melendez
Moves up in the MMA World
Gilbert Melendez is finally getting some of the recognition he
deserves. Despite going 8-0 and defeating top-ten stand outs,
Stephen
Paling and
Hiroyuki Takaya , Melendez managed to somehow stay under the
radar on most of the fight ranking's lists of top-ten contenders
as well as the actual event promotion's lists themselves. That
is until now. Shooto has recognized Melendez as their #1 contender
in the Pacific Rim division and as the #3 contender in their
World rankings. Hopefully the rest of the MMA world will soon
follow suit and take notice. Congrats Gilbert!
Source:
Gracie Fighter
|
SHAQ SHOOTS UFC
COMMERCIAL
UFC President Dana White talked about NBA superstar Shaquille
O'Neal be used for a future UFC commercial. The shoot is scheduled
for this weekend. O'Neal, now with the Miami Heat was in Los
Angeles this weekend for the game between Miami and the Los Angeles
Clippers.
O'Neal made it public that he was a huge UFC fan when he was
quoted in last week's Sports Illustrated talking about who he
would pay to see in sports. He answered "Randy Couture....he's
an old dude that beats all the young guys asses..." O'Neal
was quoted in part of the article.
The UFC capitilized on the NBA star's willingness by asking him
to do a commercial for the UFC. O'Neal was excited to be a part
of it. O'Neal has been seen at a few UFC's and enjoys attending
live UFC events when he isn't playing basketball. Now O'Neal
will be used to promote MMA as the UFC gets set for national
tv with the Ultimate Fighter show debuting on Monday.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Sean
"The Cannon" Gannon headed to the UFC
I doubt
this rumor, but it is out there, so we shall see.
On today's edition of "The Boston Globe," there is
a mention that the UFC has signed Sean Gannon. Gannon is best
known for his underground fight with internet icon Kimbo.
"The
UFC has signed Boston Police officer Sean Gannon, who recently
drew controversy for his participation in a no-holds-barred fight
video that was widely discussed on the Internet. White said Gannon
has signed a three-fight deal and will appear in a UFC event
this summer."
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
SHOOT
BOXING 2005
GROUND ZERO FUKUOKA
FIGHT CARD
Date: January 23rd 2005
Place: Fukuoka Kokusai Center
Start: 15:00
OPENING Match / SHOOT BOXING Fresh Man class rule 3min x 3R
1st
Match SB Japan Super welter class (70kg class)
Taiga
Yamaguchi (Neyagawa Gym) VS Kiyotake Kitamura(REAL DEAR)
2nd
Match SB Japan fether class (58kg)
Takeshi Ishikawa(Ceser GYM) VS Hiroyuki Takesue(REAL DEAR)
3rd
Match SB Japan Super fether class (60kg)
Akifumi
Utagawa(U.W.F Snake Pit Japan)VS Yoshiteru Kawasaki(REAL DEAR)
4th
Match 5min x 2R MMA Rule (78kg)
Ayumu
Takami(Japan/Takada Dojo) VS Pete Spratt(Team Janjiri)
5th
Match 3min x 3R SHOOT BOXING Expert Class Special Rule (95kg)
Toru
Oishi(Japan/Nisshin Kaikan) VS Koji Iga Ryuseijuku)
K-1 JAPAN GP’97 3rd Place SB Japan Heavy Weight 2nd rank
6th
Match 5min x 2R UWF Rule
Tatsuaki
Nakano(Japan/Nakano Dojo)VS CHOI JUNG GYU(CMA KOREA)
7th Match 5min x 2R MMA Rule
Daijiro
Matsui(Japan/Takada Dojo) VS Brian Foster(TEAM QEST)
8th Match 3min x 3R SHOOT BOXING Expert Class Special Rule
Nobu
Hayashi(Japan/Chakuriki) VS Ben Rothwell(Miletich Fighting System)
K-1JAPAN GP ‘99, ‘04 2nd Place
9th Match 3min x 5R SHOOT BOXING Expert Class Rule (69kg)
Koichi
Kikuchi (Japan/Neyagawa Gym) VS Christian Allen(3rd Dimension)
SB Japan Welter 2nd rank ISKA.US Welter Class Champion
10th
Match 3min x 5R SHOOT BOXING Expert Class Rule (70kg)
Hiroki
Shishido (Japan/Ceser GYM)VS Ole Laursen (Denmark/KRS GTM,Team
Ole)
SB Japan Super Light Weight Champ IMTC World Super Welter Champ
11th
Match 3min x 5R SHOOT BOXING Expert Class Rule(69kg)
Hiroyuki
Doi (Japan/Ceser GYM) VS Phajunsuk S.K.V.Gym(Thai/SKV GYM)
SB World Welter Weight Champ WMC World Welter Weight Champ
12th Match 3min x 5R SHOOT BOXING Expert (70kg)
Kenichi Ogata(Japan/Ceser GYM) VS Serkan Yilmaz(Turkey/Team Sorack)
SB Japan Super Welter Champ K-1 WORLD MAX 2004 Japan 2nd Place
Source:
Koichi “Booker K” Kawasaki
|
Jean
Silva trains hard at Chute Boxe
Jean Silva has been training hard to join Chute Boxe. The Cage
Rage champion is doing well and was approved by the team. "He
owns heart!!! Guys fell very comfortable with him We don't have
too much athletes in this weight," Rafael Cordeiro said.
Jean told Rafael he would like to face Júnior Buscapé
(BTT). "They have a thing! They are from the same city and
have been winning it all! Everybody wants to watch this fight!
It will be an unavoidable confront," Cordeiro concluded.
Source:
Tatame
|
Quote
of the Day
"Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way
to keep score.
The real excitement is playing the game."
Donald Trump, American Businessman and Star of "The Apprentice"
|
Kauai’s
Eben Kaneshiro chokes out Japanese fighter in Guam!
Ulloa remains unbeaten
By
Mark-Alexander Pieper
Pacific Daily News
Amid
the chorus of thousands of amped fight fans chanting his name
Purebred/Spike 22 Academy's Mike Ulloa kept his unbeaten no-holds-barred
record alive forcing Carlson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy's Gabe
Baker to tap out.
As
with the other three Pacific Xtreme Combat events, PXC 4: Gera
rocked the more than 2,800 people at the University of Guam field
house last night.
The highly anticipated main event started roughly at 11:30 last
night because the night's 13 other fights took several hours
to get through.
Prior
to the fight Baker and Ulloa, in videotaped interview's both
complemented each other as fighters and people for what they
are each doing to develop the sport on Guam.
Baker,
a jiu-jitsu instructor, came to the ring led by mentor Carlson
Gracie Jr. and adorned in his Gracie instructor's gi. Ulloa,
after an excruciatingly long entrance song, entered the arena
to the roar of the crowd and in his usually happy-go-lucky walk.
Showing
great respect for each other, both fighters tapped gloves prior
to the opening bell, and then proceeded to attack each other
but not in a wild and uncontrolled fashion. Both approached cautiously
until Baker quickly took Ulloa to the ground and locked him up
in his guard. Ulloa, like Baker a trained jiu-jitsu specialist,
tried to punch his opponent but was unable to get leverage for
powerful blows because Baker used his strong upper body to keep
Ulloa's arms close to his body.
After
several minutes of non-action, head referee Larry Landless declared
a stalemate and brought the fighters back to their feet. Baker,
who is not a striker, lunged for a punch but Ulloa dogged it
then caught his off-balance opponent with a straight right, followed
by a left knee forcing Baker to stumble backwards.
Baker on his way down pulled Ulloa to the mat but Ulloa managed
to mount his fallen opponent. Ulloa then caught Baker with a
punch causing Baker to flinch and lift his left arm. Ulloa then
seized the opportunity and applied an armbar for the submission
win.
After
the match, Ulloa thanked his sponsors and Baker for taking the
fight. He then said while he'll stay involved in the fighting
scene on island he's going to take it easy for the rest of the
year ass the Rev TV has numerous projects he had put on hold
to fight.
"Actually
Gabe and I will be working together to put together a team of
fighters to go off island and represent Guam in the Philippines,"
he said.
"I
know there's a lot of different gyms on Guam but I think for
us to have success outside of the island we have to come together
and work as one."
To
add a little more spice to PXC's mix, awards for the night's
best knockout and best submission -- which was won by Chris Brub
and Melvin Manibusan, respectively.
Brub,
fast becoming one of the island's most popular fighters, obliterated
Mike Sablan in a mere 10 seconds. Brub, who strutted to the sounds
of 2Pac, came to the ring decked in red shorts, blazing a red
mohawk, and wearing a sinister smile.
Brub, who in his first PXC fight paced around like a caged animal
before the bout, was unusually calm in the moments before the
bell. But the calm only belied the storm to calm, as the Cobra
Kai/Underworld Xtreme bone crushing machine unleashed a flurry
of punches which included a right haymaker that floored Sablan.
Out
on the floor, Brub caught Sablan with one more punch and a stomp
as referee Landless moved the Agat native out of the way. Still
amped from his knock out hook, Brub shoved the Landless back
then danced around the ring playing up to the crowd's deafening
roars until he finally pulled what will surely become his signature
move -- Brub catapulted himself him in the air and flopped flat
on the ring onto the mat creating a thunderous thud in the ring.
While
Brub was playing to the crowd, medical staff converged on the
ring to check on Sablan and for several minutes until the fighter
awoke. Sablan had to be helped out of the ring but he walked
out on his won strength.
Following the fight, Brub thanked the people of Guam and all
his sponsors for their support.
In
the night's other bouts:
Ed
Lopez def. Rico Ayuyu
Lopez won when referee Alex Gutierrez stopped the bout after
Lopez pummeled Ayuyu for 22 seconds. Both fighters hugged at
the end of the fight as a sign of respect for having the courage
and heart to step into the ring.
Mike
Westfall def. Melvin Aguon
Westfall won by submission at 4 minutes and 48 seconds in the
first round when Aguon tapped out after Westfall pinned him to
the floor and wearily threw punches at Aguon's back and head.
Ryan
Bigler def. Rich Zulueta
Bigler won when Zulueta's corner threw in the towel at 2:07 in
the first round. Zulueta, a jiu-jitsu grappler, had his efforts
to bring the fight to the ground backfire on him as Bigler was
able to control the take down and mount Zulueta to pound him
into submission.
Michael
Reyes def. Justin Camacho
"Boonie Dog" Reyes made a triumphant return to the
PXC ring by submitting Camacho via a rear naked choke at 3:37
in the first round. Reyes had previously lost to Ulloa in the
first PXC.
Chris
Duenas def. Mathew Cooper
In one of the most exciting bouts of the night Duenas defeated
his taller opponent by referee stoppage at 4:30 in the first
round. Duenas at first looked like he would lose the match after
rushing in for a takedown and exposing himself for a choke, but
Cooper, a boxer, wasn't able to capitalize on Duenas' error.
Thomas
Calvo def. John Salas
Calvo controlled much of the fight throughout both rounds using
his jiu-jitsu skills to keep Salas, a striker, on the ground
were he could not fight to his strengths. Calvo would then use
numerous knees on Salas's head while he had him in a reverse
mount.
Calvo would eventually win the fight in the second round by referee
stoppage from the numerous unanswered attacks he would have on
Salas. After the match, Calvo said he no longer plans to compete
in PXC events because the training takes away too much time from
his family.
Melvin
Manibusan def. Michael Saralu
Manibusan used his superior grappling skills to pull Saralu,
a boxer, to the ground were he was unable to wind up and deliver
his powerful punches. With Saralu trapped on the ground near
the ropes Manibusan eventually moved into position to choke out
the striker at 1:35 in the first round.
Joseph
Taimanglo def. Raymond Quidachay
Cobra Kai/Underworld Xtreme's Taimanglo won when referee Gutierrez
stopped the fight at 1:31 in the first after Taimanglo pummeled
his downed opponent.
Eric
Santos def. Leyton Borja
Santos won when fight Dr. Chris Dombrowski stopped the fight
at 4:55 in the first round after numerous forearms by Santos
on a grounded Borja busted Borja's forehead open.
Spike 22/Purebred's Borja gained control of the fight early slamming
Santos to the mat repeatedly but the shorter Santos was able
to maintain his composure under Borja's barrage to eventually
slow the fighter down and gain control of the bout.
Santos' win brought boos from the crowd who thought the Cobra
Kai/Underworld Xtreme used an illegal elbow to split Borja open
and gain an advantage. Referee Landless said after the fight
that Santos used a legal forearm to deliver the cut and gain
the win.
Alex
Castro def. Robert Gutierrez
In a real battle of attrition attacked each other for all three
five minute rounds until the three ringside judges unanimously
selected Cobra Kai/Underworld Xtreme's Castro. The fight was
a true clash of styles as Castro, a known brawler, relentlessly
attacked Gutierrez, a Spike 22/Purebred, with punches and kicks.
Gutierrez, to his credit, withstood the attacks and several times
nearly locked in a submission on Castro.
When the final bell rang both fighters, who were brawling on
the ground, collapsed to their backs in exhaustion. Both then
got to their feet and hugged in a show of great respect for each
other.
Eben
Kaneshiro
def. Yusuke Ikenishi
Kaneshiro defeated Ikenishi when he applied a rear naked choke
at 2:27 in the first that caused the Japanese warrior to black
out.
Eric
Tedtaotao def. Emery Candaso
A slimmed down Tedtaotao made a succesfull return to the PXC
ring when he knocked out the 6 foot 3 inches tall Candaso in
26 seconds.
Source:
Gus/Pacific Daily News
|
2005 Hawaii Junior
State Championships of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Is Back on Jan 29th!
The tournament which was referred to as the Gracie's Kids Tournament
(I just made that up) finally has an official name, 2005 Hawaii
Junior State Championships of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Venue: Relson Gracie Main
Academy
844 Queen Street, 2nd Floor
Date: January 29, 2005
Time: 10AM - 2PM
9:30AM Rules Clinic
Ages 16 and under
Inviting all competitors ages 5 to 16 years old
Sponsored by the Relson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Associations of Hawaii
The Relson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Associations of Hawaii would like
to cordially invite you and your students to join us at the 2005
Hawaii Junior State Jiu-Jitsu Championships on January 29, 2005
at this year's Host Club-The Relson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy
in Honolulu, Hawaii. We
have invited youth competitors from schools around the state including HMC, Brazilian Freestyle
Jiu-Jitsu, Gracie Kailua, BJ Penn Jiu-Jitsu, and every Relson
Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Association including: Honolulu, Aiea, Kaneohe,
HK and more. We are excited and eager to see all of Hawaii's
youth exhibit their great talent at this exclusive event.
We strongly recommend that all competitors and coaches be at
the tournament no later than 8:30 AM on Saturday to weigh-in
and to find parking (Parking stalls are available at Queen Bee
Restaurant on the corner of Queen St. and Cooke St. between 8-2
PM; there are also parking spaces on adjacent streets-please
observe neighboring business signs and city and county regulations
as to avoid ticketing and towing). The rules clinic will be held at 9:30
AM with the competition beginning promptly at 10 AM.
The top four competitors in each division will receive a trophy
(one 1st place, one 2nd place, and two 3rd places) generously
provided by Hawaiian Pacific Chiropractic. In addition to awards,
all competitors will be qualified to win other prizes. We would
love to see all competitors, spectators, family, martial artists,
etc. gather in this friendly atmosphere established to promote
the awesome art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu among our youth in this
great state of Hawaii.
Sincerely,
Ronn T. Shiraki
Relson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Kaneohe Team
If Ronn Shiraki has not contacted you, please email him at: Kaneoheteam@yahoo.com
Tournament Rules and Regulations
· Registration fee is $20
· All competitors must compete with a clean white or all
blue Jiu-Jitsu GI (kimono). No mixed colors or black GI will
be allowed.
· Any competitor who displays unsportsmanlike-like conduct
before, during, or after the match, will be disqualified and
forfeit the registration fee.
· It is the competitor's responsibility to find out when
his / her match will take place.
· Any competitor who does not show up before his/ her
match will automatically forfeit the match and registration.
· Any competitor who deliberately tries to hurt an opponent,
(including slamming while in the guard) will be disqualified.
· The competition organizers are not liable for any injury
and/or accident involving competitors.
· We reserve the right to combine weight categories.
· This information may be amended or changed at any time.
· The athletes will not be allowed to apply traumatic
holds; only competition sport Jiu-Jitsu holds will be permitted.
· All parents of youth participants must fill out a waiver
prior to weigh-in.
Divisions and Time Limits
are as follows
Ages Limits Time
5 Mixed 2 minutes
(5 year olds will start on knees)
6 Mixed 3 minutes
7-8 Mixed 4 minutes
9-10 Mixed 4 minutes
11-12 Mixed 4 minutes
13-14 Mixed 4 minutes
15-16 Mixed 5 minutes
Note: Weight classes (to be determined at tournament)
Competitors may be moved up or down a division depending on weight.
Competition Scoring System
· Throws and Takedowns 2 points
· Knee on the Belly 2 points
· Technical Sweeps 2 points
· Passing the Guard 3 points
· Front Mount Position 4 points
· Back Mount Position with Hooks 4 points
Illegal Techniques
The following techniques have been banned to protect the youth
competitors from injury. Judges will stop techniques if harm
appears imminent (referee decisions are Final).
· No Straight foot-locks (ages 15 and 16 only)
· No Toe-holds
· No Heel-hooks
· No Knee-bars
· No Small joint manipulation (fingers and toes)
· No Wrist-locks
· No Fish-hooks
· No Neck-cranks
· No Slamming
· No Can-openers
· No Swearing
· No Spitting
· No Striking of any kind
Contact Person
Ronn T. Shiraki
Phone: 387-1961 Email: Kaneoheteam@yahoo.com
|
BLOODLINE
PRESENTS
PUNISHMENT IN PARADISE
"GAME TO THE END"
MEET &
GREET
BOARD RIDERS CLUB KAILUA
6pm TONIGHT
Come Meet UFC Veteram Ronald "Machine Gun" Jhun and
the rest of the Punishment In Paradise fighters. In person we
will have Ronald Jhun, Kaleo Kwon, John Kukahiko, Casey Daniels
also fighters from 808 Fight Factory, Eastsidaz and Bulls Pen.
Come take pictures and get you free autograph!!!
Also tickets for the event will be on had to purchase.
More information call 620-5638
|
POSTAL
CONNECTIONS:
K-1 ABOUT TO OFFER MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT TO VANDERLEI
By Tape
Lord
Hello my friends, my postal connections in the K-1 organization
are telling me that K-1 is about to make a contract offer to
Vanderlei Silva that would pay him in the area of USD$2.5 million
over six fights.
Source:
Fight Sport
|
The
Brazilian Notebook
by Portal do Vale Tudo
The
beginning of the year is always the same for people: some go
on vacation and some get back to their daily work routine. In
the world of mixed martial arts it’s also the same. While
Royce Gracie gets vacation time with his family after his big
win over Akebono, Gustavo “Ximu,” Renato “Babalu”
and Rogério “Minotoro” are just a few of those
getting back to the training routines for their next commitments.
And a sad note comes with the passing of Magno Penha, who fell
victim to leukemia.
The
Legend Continues
Royce
Gracie was one of the biggest focus of attentions on New Year's
Eve, submitting the giant Akebono with an omoplata during the
main bout of the K-1 "Dynamite" card. The Gracie complemented
the strategy made by his family. “The strategy that I, together
with my father and my brother Royler, made was perfect,"
Royce said. "If you could have seen the training you would
notice that it was exactly the same as the fight."
Royce
took his time telling us how calm he was getting into the ring
and how he felt during the fight: “I was never this cool
before a fight. When I got in the ring my heart rate was at 80
and it didn’t pass 100 during the whole fight. I told them
that the fight was not going to last more than five minutes,
but I was ready to fight 20."
Royce
is now resting on vacation. His routine of world wide seminars
will restart at the end of January, and now, according to him,
is the time to rest with the family.
"Ximu"
Eyes Big Year
Gustavo
“Ximu” already has his next fight scheduled, he will
be fighting in Pancrase in March. The opponent is yet to be announced,
but "Ximu" is ready to fight with anyone. “ I'm
very well prepared both physically and mentally," he told
the Brazilian Notebook. "I'll get there and finish my opponent
as fast as possible. I'll go after him and I'll keep the pace
of the fight really high.”
To
get his stamina for this fight, “Ximu” realizes the
importance of training with his team. “The training is on
the same pace," he said. "This week I had my first
striking training of the year: three six-minute rounds and I
only got tired in the end of the third -- and that was only because
it was really intense, all the time on the offensive.
"The
training is getting stronger and stronger so that when I get
there I'll have a lot of stamina.”
The
goal is to win the next one and challenge Yuki Kondo for the
title, and then go to PRIDE. “I always go for the win and
I'll soon be the light heavyweight King of Pancrase; with the
title I hope to get invited to join PRIDE. I want everyone to
know that I'm back and I'll knockout or submit anyone that gets
in my way. I respect every fighter, but due to the time in my
career, it's now the time to become champion in any event that
I get in.”
"Babalu"
Getting Back on Track
Renato
“Babalu” Sobral will be headlining Cage Rage 10, which
will happen on February 26 in England. “I already have and
opponent, I just don't know who he is,” said “Babalu,”
who's set to face the UK's Pierre Guillet.
“The
team started the training on the third [of January]," he
continued. "We are back from the holidays and the training
is getting stronger -- even on Carnaval we will all be training
because we have fights booked."
He
also commented on how 2004 was for him and his career: “It
was a year to get back on the tracks, with a new team ... but
it was a good year to train.”
For
2005 “Babalu” promises to “fight anyone that is
winning, I don’t want to face anyone in particular, I'll
just beat the crap out of anyone that stands in front of me.
You can wait 'cause this is going to be a victory year -- I'll
be owning everybody!”
Chute
Boxe News
Chute
Boxe suffered another big loss right after Wanderlei Silva's
bout with Mark Hunt. Master Sérgio Cunha, one of the oldest
students of Rudimar Fedrigo and one of the people responsible
for Chute Boxe Japan, decided to leave the team. The reason given
was that he wanted to get in a new environment. With 17 years
invested in Chute Boxe and a black belt given by Rafael Cordeiro,
Cunha said that he wants to train top athletes and is ready to
negotiate with other teams.
Still
in Chute Boxe, Murilo “Ninja” Rua declared that he
will participate in the PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix this year.
After his bad performance in the heavyweight division, “Ninja”
might have a tough time ahead. Among the opposition he could
face is his ex-partner, Anderson Silva, who confessed his wish
to be a part of the GP upon returning to Brazil after Pride Shockwave
2.
Rudimar
Fedrigo already announced bigger plans. Chute Boxe's manager
stated that four of his fighters will be joining PRIDE this year:
the Rua brothers in the middleweight GP; Daniel Acácio
is preparing to fight at 83 kilograms; and Luiz Azeredo in the
73 kg-division.
"Minotoro"
Prepares for February PRIDE
Rogério
“Minotoro” Nogueira is training for his next challenge
-- he will be in PRIDE on February 20. "Minotoro,”
whose opponent is yet to be announced, spent a few days in the
U.S. training with American Top Team, and arrived in Brazil this
week. Without a rest the Brazilian keeps on training.
“I
started training last week," he said. "Now [I'm] back
in Brazil and I’m already back training. I'm training a
lot of boxing, wrestling and jiu-jitsu -- all I’m waiting
is for the confirmation of my opponent.”
“Minotoro”
guarantees that he doesn’t choose his opponents, but expects
to face one of PRIDE’s top three. “I want to fight
the best," he said, "because sometimes I face a tough
opponent, like Nakamura, but he doesn’t have the name so
people think that is my obligation to beat him -- but he proved
his value by beating Murilo Bustamante. I want [to fight] a top-three
guy to prove once and for all that I am among the best.”
News
and Notes
Wallid
Ismail is full of plans for 2005. The promoter of Jungle Fight
promised five editions for this year, three in Brazil and two
in other countries, with the possibility of one of them being
in Las Vegas. Many great fighters are scheduled to fight on Jungle
Fight this year: Ebenezer Braga, Jorge Patino "Macaco,"
Aléssio Sakara, Rafael Carino and Jefferson "Tank"
are practically certain for the first edition in march. ... The
city of São João da Barra, in Rio de Janeiro state,
will be hosting, on the 18th and 19th of next month, a big event.
It's the fourth Submission Wrestling with the presence of many
great grapplers such as Rany Yahrya, Milton Vieira, Jorge Patino
"Macaco," Carlos Baruk and Antoine Jaoude. ... The
big news is that for the first time they will have MMA fights
in the card. One tournament will have Danilo Moto-Serra, Marcos
Henrique, Fabrício Monteiro and IVC veteran Egídio
"Sombra da Noite." One super-fight will feature Storm
Samurai and Meca veteran Rodrigo "Riscado," who will
be fighting a yet to be determined opponent. Another super-fight
will have Jefferson "Tank," who already fought Ernesto
Hoost in K-1. ... Finally, the Brazilian MMA scene is in mourning.
Last Tuesday fighter Magno Penha passed away, victim of a heart
attack. This athlete had been fighting leukemia for a few years,
but wasn't able to win that war.
Source:
Sherdog
|
INTERVIEW
WITH MARC LAIMON
As
Spike TV’s production of The Ultimate Fighter fast approaches,
the spotlight is soon to shine on those involved in the project
in a way never before experienced by them. Among the people whose
exposure will rise is Marc Laimon, a Jiu-Jitsu mastermind whose
techniques and training skills are quickly becoming some of the
hottest commodities in MMA. Already known to UFC fans as the
host of the instructional segments on PPV broadcasts, Laimon
spoke with MMAWeekly’s Mick Hammond about the upcoming reality
television show, his school, and his thoughts on the old ways
versus the new ways of fighting in the sport of MMA.
MMAWeekly:
First up, next week the highly anticipated reality series, The
Ultimate Fighter, debuts on Spike TV. For those of our readers
who are unfamiliar with your role in the show, please tell us
your involvement with it.
Marc
Laimon: My official title is MMA Assistant Coach. I basically
am assisting the two main coaches (Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell)
by providing some MMA and Jiu-Jitsu expertise.
MMAWeekly:
How did you first become involved with the project?
Marc
Laimon: I was just at the right place at the right time.
MMAWeekly:
What was it like having cameras in your face at the training
facility pretty much every minute of every day you were in there?
Marc
Laimon: I kind of expected it, I’ve seen a lot of reality
TV shows before. It was a little weird, but once you get used
to it, it was no big deal.
MMAWeekly:
This is easily the highest profile mainstream exposure for everyone
involved in the show. For you personally what do you think will
come of your exposure on the series?
Marc
Laimon: As far as my exposure, I’d like people to see that
I’m a good coach, that I care about people getting better
and that I’d like to produce some champions out of my gym.
MMAWeekly:
Speaking of your gym, tell our readers about it, how it came
about and what to expect when they come down and check it out
for themselves.
Marc
Laimon: My gym came about, about a year ago and I’ve got
a lot of talented guys down there. It’s not a commercial
gym, it’s a real hardcore place, it’s in the ghetto,
there’s barbed wire, but if you can get through all of that
it’s a really nice training facility. We have an incredible
room with guys training for the UFC, UFC Champions, other guys
who are Pride Champions who have me train them and are training
here. I’ve got a lot of good guys under me who live out
here on a permanent basis like Jay Heiron, Jason Miller, Phil
Baroni, Joe Stephenson, I’ve got a guy, Gray Maynard, who
will be doing big things this next year, he’s a three-time
All American wrestler from Michigan. It’s going to be a
good year for Cobra Kai.
MMAWeekly:
I understand that you’re also expanding the facilities as
we speak.
Marc
Laimon: Yeah, I recently purchased the facility next door and
I have an Octagon that’s nearing completion, we’ll
be putting in a floor ring and some striking equipment.
MMAWeekly:
So for people who come down it’s going to be a total MMA
experience, not just the Jiu-Jitsu you are known for?
Marc
Laimon: Yeah, it’s going to be like that, you can take whatever
you want to learn. It’s going to be a MMA facility, not
just Jiu-Jitsu.
MMAWeekly:
Tell our readers a little bit about yourself, your background
and how you got involved with the sport.
Marc
Laimon: I saw Royce Gracie fight at UFC 4 and it made sense how
he fought and I basically dropped out of college and sold many
of my earthly possessions and moved to California and started
training. I’ve been on that roller coaster for what will
be 9 years on January 22nd.
MMAWeekly:
How has you the sport changed since you first got involved with
it?
Marc
Laimon: Basically, back in those days it was a singular discipline,
which won fights. Now you are seeing guys who are a lot more
well rounded that have a more overall package than the guys back
in the day. I think the next 5-10 years when the sport breaks
more into the mainstream you’ll be getting bigger, better
athletes, you’re going to be seeing the sickest athletes
in the world fighting and it’s an exciting time to be involved
in the sport. I think there’s going to be a big evolutionary
jump in the near future.
MMAWeekly:
Now I know you do not fight in MMA yourself but are very active
in grappling and submission competitions. Do you plan to concentrate
more on your matches or more on your coaching in 2005?
Marc
Laimon: Mainly I want to concentrate on my coaching for a bit.
I was really busy last year trying to get my students ready for
tournaments, myself ready for a tournament, running the school,
and doing the UFC TV show. It was quite a plate full, but I really
want to concentrate on developing my fighters and my Jiu-Jitsu
competition team and get some highlight footage.
MMA
Weekly: The name of your school is Cobra Kai, tell us how you
came to decide on that name and what it means to you.
Marc
Laimon: Basically, I think people in Martial Arts take themselves
a little too seriously and if you can’t laugh at yourself
who can you laugh at? The whole thing came about as a joke, it
was the “bad school” from the Karate Kid movie, a lot
of people hate me in Jiu-Jitsu, so I’ll be the “bad
guy.”
MMAWeekly:
Why would you say you’re so hated in the Jiu-Jitsu world?
Marc
Laimon: I speak the truth rather than the rhetoric that people
are used to hearing. Before I was hearing it takes 10 years to
become a black belt and yada, yada, yada, and that’s bull.
All the talk was about how good of a teacher you had when in
reality a lot of people were getting pretty terrible teachers.
MMAWeekly:
Not only do you train a lot of high profile fighters at your
own school but you also do seminars all over. Most recently you
were up at Team Quest in Oregon, tell us about your experience
working with them.
Marc
Laimon: It was awesome, I learned a lot on that seminar. I hope
I helped someone learn something too. They have some tough guys
up there and a nice facility to train at and I like a place where
you can have a nice exchange of information. I showed them stuff,
they showed me stuff, and that’s what’s going to help
this sport grow and take it to the next level.
MMAWeekly:
Do you think that’s another thing that separates you from
the “old school” ways of Jiu-Jitsu where people are
still stuck in a very static way of training, teaching, and learning?
Marc
Laimon: Yeah, I think a lot of the old Jiu-Jitsu was, “don’t
show this to this guy or he’ll use it against us,”
or, “don’t show him this, don’t show him these
things.” All that does is stifle the growth of the sport
and the sport is small enough as it is and it needs to grow as
fast as it can. The best way to do that is to share information,
you’ll create better fighters and a better product that
the fans will want to see. If you stifle information then you
suffocate the growth of the sport and that’s just retarded
to me and makes no sense. I think even the US wrestlers and Russian
wrestlers exchange techniques and they compete against each other
in the Olympics and it doesn’t hurt them. It’s a different
mindset, I don’t believe in hiding things. I don’t
want to ever go to a seminar and have people say that I’m
a terrible teacher and that I’m holding back. I always show
the stuff I know to my fullest, because I never had anyone do
that for me, I never want to cheat the students.
MMAWeekly:
One of the higher profile additions to your training regimen
last year was Kevin Randleman just before he went to Pride to
rematch Mirko “Cro Cop” on New Year’s Eve. Can
you tell us about that situation?
Marc
Laimon: Kevin just came down to my school one day he was in town
and wrestled and I basically told him my thoughts on MMA and
where he stands in it and where he could be and I started training
him. He’ll actually be back in the Gym tonight to work out.
I’m also hopefully going to be training (Mark) Coleman as
well. I think those guys still have the tools, they need to acquire
a few new things and they can still be on the top of the game.
MMAWeekly:
That was your first trip to Japan, tell us your thoughts about
being over there where MMA is so much bigger and better understood
by the general public than it is here in the US.
Marc
Laimon: It made me excited, it gave me a little glimpse into
the future of MMA (in the US). It’s like a crystal ball
of what things are going to be like over here and it’s an
exciting time to be involved in the sport. It’s the most
exciting sport there is, there’s nothing I’d rather
see than a fight. It’s a very pure form of entertainment,
once the TV show hits and the sport grows it’s going to
overtake boxing so when you ask someone about the term “fighter”
they think of an MMA guy, which is a truer form of fighting.
MMAWeekly:
What would you say are the biggest differences between Japan
and the US?
Marc
Laimon: The biggest difference are the fans, the fans in Japan
are loyal fans. They just want to see a fight. If you win or
lose they still love you as opposed to here in the States where
people just jump on bandwagons. People say, “he’s the
best,” but when he loses they treat him like a piece of
shit, and that’s just not the case in Japan. I think styles
make fights and the fans have to understand that it may just
not have been that guy’s day or not feeling well, it’s
just not very forgiving over here in the US.
MMAWeekly:
What kind of goals do you have for yourself and your school as
this year progresses?
Marc
Laimon: As this year progresses I would like to have my school
be recognized as one of the top grappling schools in the nation,
which I think it is close to now or if not it. I’ve got
a sic room full of a lot of great guys and my goals is to win
more grappling titles and tournaments with this team. I’d
also like to have a couple of world championship belts in my
gym by the end of the year and I think I have some of the horses
to do it. I think a world title is the next goal for Cobra Kai.
MMAWeekly:
Thanks a lot for the interview Marc, in closing is there anything
you’d like to say to anyone as we head out?
Marc
Laimon: You’re welcome. I’d like to thank Howard from
HCK because he believed in me when I was an absolute nobody,
not that I’m anybody now, but he helped me out when I was
a young buck in the sport. If I have any fans I’d like to
thank them and if anybody out there is sick of their training
environment and thinks there’s something better out there,
you’re right and not the only one, I recommend coming down
to my school. Check it out, there’s no politics, there’s
no nothing, if you’re serious about training and want to
learn come to my school. Check out www.CobraKai.tv for more information.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Liddell
fights Couture at UFC 52
Two of the main MMA starts of Ultimate Fighting Championship,
Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture will meet again in the octagon
fighting for Light Heavyweight title. The fight is scheduled
to go on next April 16. The first UFC 52 fight was announced
during an interview at the show Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC).
Liddell and Couture were on air on last Tuesday talking about
The Ultimate Fighter, a reality show that opens next January
17 (SpikeTV).
Missing
less then 20 days to UFC 51, the show's card has changed. Due
to some injure on the shoulder, Robbie Lawler is no longer fighting
Phil Baroni. In his place, Pete Sell, who comes from four victories
at Ring of Combat. The fight between Lawler and Baroni was been
faced as a life-dead bout, because both of them need to win.
Baroni does not win since September of 2002 and Robbie Lawler
comes from two loses.
COMPLETE
CARD (subject to change):
Ultimate
Fighting Championship 51
Saturday,
February 5, 2005
Mandalay
Bay Casino, Las Vegas - United States
-
Vitor Belfort Vs Tito Ortiz;
-
Tim Sylvia Vs Andrey Arlovski;
-
Evan Tanner Vs David Terrell;
-
Phil Baroni Vs Pete Sell;
-
David Loiseau Vs Joe Riggs;
-
James Irvin Vs Mike Kyle;
-
Nick Diaz Vs Drew Fickett;
-
Karo Parisyan Vs Chris Lytle.
Source:
Tatame
|
LIDDELL
IN SPOTLIGHT
Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell spoke with MMAWeekly over
the weekend about the UFC reality show, "The Ultimate Fighter,"
which debuts on Spike TV, January 17th. Liddell is on the road
promoting the show. He and Randy Couture taped a segment for
"Last Call with Carson Daly". Along with "Ultimate
Fighter," Chuck discussed the impending rematch with Randy
and how this time will be different.
On
"The Ultimate Fighter," Liddell and Randy "The
Natural" Couture are trainers for opposing teams. Chuck
was impressed with the participants willingness to learn and
try new things. He commented, "The training part of it was
what mainly I was around for, was as I expected to go. It was
fun. Some guys who really like to learn, want to learn new things
and talented guys, it was fun to work with."
As
you can imagine, throwing sixteen fighters up under the same
roof could lead to some conflicts. When asked about conflicts
or rivalries, Chuck said, "There was some legit heat going
on." He added, "It's going to be fun to watch. I can't
wait to see it. Actually see how everything went down. A lot
of stuff went down that I didn't get to see." For all information
on "The Ultimate Fighter," you can go to www.theultimatefighter.tv,
www.ufc.tv, or www.spiketv.com.
In
the filming of "The Ultimate Fighter," Chuck worked
closely with Randy Couture. Although they focused on the shooting
of the show, they will be fighting each other soon. About the
anticipated rematch, Liddell said, "We're going to have
to fight. I mean, I've been wanting to fight him again since
the last time, two years ago. I've been wanting a rematch with
him forever. I've been looking forward to it."
When
asked how a rematch with Couture will be different this time
around, Chuck replied, "I've been working on a lot of things.
It's going to be different for me. You'll see...It's going to
be a good fight." Liddell went on to say, "I'm going
to try to press the action a little more."
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
EILERS
AND SYLVIA READY TO FIGHT IN THREE WEEKS
UFC 51 is just a few weeks away. Monte Cox has two fighters competing
on the card, Tim Sylvia and Justin Eilers. Sylvia will be taking
on Andre Arlovski for the Interim UFC Heavyweight title and Justin
Eilers will be facing off against UFC first timer, Paul Buentello.
MMAWeekly spoke with Monte recently about both of these match
ups.
Justin
Eilers suffered a broken hand in his last outing against Mike
Kyle. Cox assured MMAWeekly that Justin's hand is just fine and
he'll be ready to use it come February 5th against Buentello.
About Eilers, Monte commented, "Justin has a little bit
of a training problem. Sometimes he doesn't train. That's his
problem. For this, it's the exact opposite. Jens (Pulver) and
he got together. They started lifting together. They started
running together and, Justin will come in in better shape than
he's ever been. That's scary."
Monte
added, "It's going to be great. The thing with Justin is,
you can tell him, Buentello is a really good stand up guy. Maybe
you should take him to the ground and pound him. He'll go, OK
and then he'll stand with him. I mean, that's just Justin. There's
no real control of that guy." Even if Eilers chooses to
stand with Buentello, Monte isn't too worried. There is no doubt
in Cox's mind that Eilers is the better athlete between the two.
Monte
talked about Tim Sylvia returning to the UFC after he suffered
a broken arm in his loss to Frank Mir. Tim fought Wes Sims in
SuperBrawl back in early December and Monte stated, "He
(Tim Sylvia) felt real good. He was happy with the way his hands
held up and his arm held up. It was just goo, he said, to get
back in the ring and just get a little light time under his belt
even though it was only a couple of minutes."
Looking
at Sylvia's match up with Andre Arlovski, Cox said, "I like
the match up. I read a lot of peoples opinions but, there's not
a heavyweight out there that's in better shape than Tim. Now,
Tim doesn't look it. He doesn't have the body of even Arlovski
but, endurance wise, cardio wise, Tim trains harder than any
heavyweight I've ever seen. I've watched him in a 16 man tournament
fighting three times in a row and not even losing his breath.
The guy can flat out go, go, go. If they think he's going to
get tired, I think they're wrong."
Monte
added, "I think Arlovski looks really good against little
guys. He looked good against Ian and he looked good against Vladdy
and, he looked like crap against Ricco and he looked like crap
against Rizzo. I don't put Cabbage in there because everyone
hits Cabbage. When you look at it, if he fights like he did against
Rizzo, Tim's going to kill him. If he thinks he's going to stand
across from him and do a boxing match, you know, that foot and
a half extra reach is going to come in real handy."
Further
commenting, Monte said, "I think Tim's got all the tools
to win the fight. I think he'll hit him enough that Arlovski
will try to shoot and once we've got him shooting and not taking
Tim down, I think we're in good shape."
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
MATYUSHENKO
TO MOVE TO MIDDLEWEIGHT
People in the camp of Vladimir Matyushenko have announced that
Matyushenko plans to compete as a middleweight.
Matyushenko
had been competing in the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions
for the past few years, but he supposedly wants to get back to
his original fighting weight of around 185-190 pounds.
Source:
Fight Sport
|
Quote
of the Day
"Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you
like and let the food fight it out inside."
Mark Twain, 1835-1910, American Writer and Humorist
|
Mike's
Integra has finally been
sold!
Thanks
to everyone that was trying to spread the word, but it finally
got sold today. For the record, the Buy/Sell and Postpig.com
did not get any responses (another person told us that that is
the same with the Star Bulletin), but the Advertiser had a little
over a handful of calls in a few days. So that seems to be the
way to go if you are selling your call.
Just passing on useful info to our faithful readers.
The best part of this is that you won't have to look at this
annoying ad anymore.
|
POSTAL
CONNECTIONS:
PRIDE WILL TRY TO SIGN PENN
By Tape Lord
Hello my friends, my postal connections in the DSE/PRIDE organization
are telling me that DSE/PRIDE will try to sign B.J. Penn after
his contract is finished with K-1.
Penn
has one more fight left on his K-1 deal, and is expected to fight
for K-1 in either February or April.
DSE/PRIDE
would like to sign Penn to compete in their upcoming Lightweight
GP, as well as staging a rematch between Penn and Takanori Gomi.
They
would also like to match Penn up against Ralph, Renzo or Ryan
Gracie.
Source:
Fight Sport
|
2005
Hawaii State/Regional Championships
Saturday
night should have a lot of bouts, but Friday night will have
a few bouts and the entrance fee is $10.
Finals
should have some good bouts.
The
2005 Hawaii State/Regional Championships will be held at the
E-Club on the Kaneohe Marine Base on Jan. 14th and 15th. Jan.
16th if needed. Tournament is single elimination. Winners advance
to the U.S. Championships at the U.S. Olympic Training Center
in Colorado Springs, CO. on March 13th to the 20th, and will
select the USA-Elite Team to the AIBA World Cup in Moscow, Russia
and the World Championships in Mianyang, China as well as other
monthly International Duels. Defending Champions expected to
compete are 119lbs Adam Rodrigues, 141lbs- Jeffrey Pelen Jr.,
152lbs- Brent Rodrigues, 165- Zach Illarazza, 178- Chris Downs,
201- Ryan Bolen, and 201+- Tinei Su'a. Also Nationally Ranked
Samson Guillermo (6) and Van Oscar Penovaroff (8) will be competing.
Admission will be charged at the door.
For
more info. contact USA-Boxing Hawaii President Ralph Martin at
306-7654.
Start
times are scheduled at 7:15 p.m. on Friday Jan 14th
and 7:00 p.m. on Saturday Jan 15th (possibly Jan 16th if needed)
Door charge $10.00.
Where: E-Club on Kaneohe Marine Corps Base
If
you have any ?, email
me
or call me at 808-542-1181 cell. Thank You for your time.
Respectfully
Submitted,
Bruce Kawano, USA-Boxing Hawaii Junior Olympic President, Board
of Dir./Gov., National Coaches Committee Board Member.
Source:
Bruce Kawano
|
Kauai’s
Eben Kaneshiro Fights in Guam Tonight!
Pacific Xtreme Combat 4: Gera
Friday, January 14, 2005
Jiu-jitsu
stylists take spotlight tonight
If
you believe the hype, then it's going to be war tonight at the
University of Guam field house when the Pacific Xtreme Combat
warriors invade for their fourth show in less than a year.
PXC
4: Gera will feature the usual cast of brawlers, grapplers and
strikers duking it out to determine the island's toughest mixed
martial arts competitors.
Unlike
previous mixed martial arts competitions, this card's main event
will not feature a heavyweight bout but will instead display
the technical stylings of jiu-jitsu warriors Mike Ulloa and Gabe
Baker.
Other
bouts include:
Joe Taimanglo vs. Ray Quidachay
Eric Tedtaotao vs. Ermery Candaso
Yusuke Ikenishi vs. Eben
Kaneshiro
Mike Reyes vs. Justin Camacho
Ryan Bigler vs. Rich Zulueta
Chris Duenas vs. Matt Cooper
Thomas Calvo vs. John Salas
Eric Santos vs. Leyton Borja
Alex Castro vs. Rob Gutierrez
Chris Brub vs. Mike Sablan
Mel Aguon vs Mike Westfall
Melvin Manibusan vs Mike Saralu
Source:
Event Promoter
|
2005
Hawaiian Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
7th Annual Event
DATE:
February 27, 2005
TIME: Start at 10:00 AM
LOCATION: Saint Louis School Gymnasium
3142 Waialae Ave., Honolulu, Hawaii
Format:
Gi & No Gi Sport BJJ Rules; Single Elimination
Weigh-in:
Saturday, February 26th, 2005
UH
Athletic Complex, Studio #2
12-1
pm; 6-8 pm
Fees:
$40 Gi or No Gi / $50 both
(Applications
will be available at weigh-in)
$5
discount if Pre-registration by February 1st
Divisions:
Various Age, Rank and Weight
Contact:
223-9363 / 392-8330 for details
Additional
Information: www.brazilian-freestyle.com/events.htm
Source:
Event organizer
|
"50
Hottest Vegas Moments"
Talks About the UFC on E! Monday Jan. 17th
"We count down the 50 wildest, most amazing, shocking and
memorable people and events that make Vegas sizzle!"
The
UFC's President Dana White and UFC Octagon announcer Bruce Buffer
are interviewed in this entertaining E! special along with many
other celebrities about Las Vegas, including the UFC's exciting
rise to becoming a mainstream sport and highly attended Las Vegas
event, along with it's history and growth plus other past and
present memorable events and people that make Las Vegas the place
to be for the best in excitement and entertainment.
"For
E! to include the UFC as a topic for their Jan. 17th special
is a prime time example further proving the UFC's rise into the
mainstream of the sports and entertainment world. People are
taking notice and becoming fans now more than ever before. This
is a much deserved reward for ZUFFA and the UFC brand and is
the tip of the iceberg for the future media recognition the UFC
and all involved deserve to receive." states Bruce Buffer.
Debuts:
Jan. 17, 8 p.m. Nationally on the E! Channel
Source:
Maxfighting
|
THE
ULTIMATE FIGHTER
WORLD PREMIERE JANUARY 17
The Ultimate Fighting Championship® and Spike TV® have
assembled 16 athletes from across North America to determine
who has what it takes to earn a UFC contract in The Ultimate
Fighter™ , a new and exciting reality-based television series.
The
original series, hosted by top recording artist and model Willa
Ford, premieres on Monday, Jan. 17 at 11 p.m. (check local listings)
following WWE Monday Night Raw and runs for 15 exciting episodes,
including a LIVE event. Craig Piligian (co-executive producer
of Survivor I, II and III) serves as co-executive producer.
UFC
51 - FULL CARD
Middleweight
David Terrell returns to the Octagon Feb. 5 at the Mandalay Bay
Resort & Casino Events Center to fight veteran Evan Tanner
for the Ultimate Fighting Championship® World Middleweight
title at UFC® 51: Super Saturday.
Tito
Ortiz vs. Vitor Belfort
Tim
Sylvia vs. Andre Arlovski
Evan
Tanner vs. David Terrell
Phil
Baroni vs. Pete Sell*
David
Loiseau vs. Joe Riggs
James
Irvin vs. Mike Kyle
Justin
Eilers vs. Paul Buentello
Nick
Diaz vs. Drew Fickett
Karo
Parisyan vs. Chris Lytle
*
Pete Sell replaces Robbie Lawler who was forced to withdraw due
to injury.
UFC
CHOPPERS ON DISCOVERY CHANNEL
January
7, 14, and 21st: Each Friday Night on The Discovery Channel.
Watch Southern Steel TV Show and the building of the UFC Choppers.
Source:
UFC
|
POSTAL
CONNECTIONS: K-1 ABOUT TO OFFER MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT
TO VANDERLEI
By Tape Lord
Hello my friends, my postal connections in the K-1 organization
are telling me that K-1 is about to make a contract offer to
Vanderlei Silva that would pay him in the area of USD$2.5 million
over six fights.
More
info to come in a few days.
Source:
Fight Sport
|
K-1
wants Wanderlei Silva badly
Once Wanderlei Silva's contract with Pride is done, big MMA organizations
start to move on and they have been studying proposals to catch
one of the biggest MMA athletes nowadays. Meanwhile Ultimate
Fighting Championship shows lots of interest in Silva, K-1 talks
about numbers. Behind the scenes, the Japanese organization would
have offered the biggest proposal made to a MMA athlete ever.
Rumors say the offer shook Wanderlei down, that after being defeated
by Mark Hunt, he is resting with family in Maceió (Brazil's
Northeast).
Source: Tatame
|
TITO
SPLITS WITH OYAMA
Tito
Ortiz announced that he is no longer training with former Muay
Thai trainer Colin Oyama.
Ortiz
saud that he is now training with a Muay Thai trainer in Texas
known as 'Master' Toddy.
Master
Toddy trained Ortiz's standup for his last fight in which he
was outstruck and rocked by slow-fisted middleweight Patick Cote.
Master
Toddy has also trained Ricco Rodriguez in the past. The same
Ricco Rodriguez who lost by brutal knockout loss to Tim Sylvia.
Master
Toddy has also trained Marvin Eastman. The same Eastman who lost
by brutal knockout losses to both Vitor Belfort and Travis Lutter.
Source:
Fight Sport
|
Quote
of the Day
"So much of what is best in us is bound up in our love of
family, that it remains the measure of our stability because
it measures our sense of loyalty. All other pacts of love or
fear derive from it and are modeled upon it."
Haniel Long, 1888-1956, American Author/Poet/Journalist |
Pacific
Xtreme Combat 4
The Pacific Xtreme Combat 4 (PXC 4) being hosted in Guam tomorrow
night January 14th at 7:00 pm. The venue is the University Of
Guam Fieldhouse. There are 12 fights on the card , lots of local
island talent will be fighting. Heavy weight Manny Chong will
be defending his title as well as Mike Ulloa. There are a couple
off island fighters that will be on the card but at this time
I don't have any names.
If you have any questions email me back at mikedude_99@yahoo.com
|
MEDIA
BLITZ BEGINS FOR UFC
The media blitz for the UFC’s upcoming TV show ‘The
Ultimate Fighter’ is fully underway. Early this morning
Fox and Friends had current UFC stars Randy Couture and Chuck
Liddell on. This is the morning show on Fox News Channel. (Check
out MMAWeekly Radio today for more information....)
And
last night the dynamic duo was in New York City to tape an upcoming
segment of NBC’s ‘Last Call with Carson Daly’.
The show will air on January 20th, but MMAWeekly was live in
attendance to bring you this exclusive sneak-peek of what fans
can expect.
The
overall show portrayed the sport of MMA in a positive way. Carson
Daly opened the show by welcoming the crowd, and then offered
a quick monologue that included how he was a fan of MMA. He also
shared how he was excited that both Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell
would be guests on the evening’s show.
The
MMA discussion continued with the show’s opening guest Joe
Pantoliano (Sopranos/Memento). Daly and Pantoliano began their
conversation with the common comedic representations of the violence
of the sport, but quickly moved on to discussing how they both
have attended UFC events in Las Vegas- and how they both respected
the athleticism of today’s professional MMA fighters. They
continued on with their segment to cover a variety of other miscellaneous
topics outside MMA, but Pantoliano remained on stage to welcome
the UFC stars.
Daly
next scooped a story himself (not a suprise to anyone in MMA)
by welcoming both Couture and Liddell to the stage and announcing
(confirming) that they would be facing one another on April 16
at UFC 52.
Daly’s
first question for the twosome was general in asking Couture
and Liddell to offer an overview of the sport and how it has
evolved over the past several years. Both Couture and Liddell
did a good job in offering a basic review. The topic next quickly
moved to the UFC’s “The Ultimate Fighter” show
debuting this month on Spike TV. Daly informed the audience that
he had viewed an advanced copy and that is was very good.
Couture
and Liddell continued by discussing their personal experiences
in having been involved with the show and the contestants. One
particular note of interest was in regards to contestant, and
Team Quest member, Chris Leben. Leben was noted by Couture as
having taken a great deal of positives from the show’s overall
experience, but on the second night of the show, he not only
talked trash, but urinated in the house. Where would reality
TV be without the drama? Even in the world of MMA. Daly next
introduced a clip from “The Ultimate Fighter” to the
audience.
*
The full clip can be viewed on MMAWeekly’s Sound off forum
thanks to UFC’s Beth!
The
segment concluded with a quick exchange regarding UFC President
Dana White’s wager involving the winner of “The Ultimate
Fighter” and NBC’s upcoming boxing clone “The
Contender”, and a joking discussion on the status of former
UFC Champion Tito Ortiz. This is of course, the same Ortiz that
both Couture and Liddell defeated in the past year. Daily agreed
with both fighters on the great importance of Ortiz needing a
victory in his upcoming battle with Vitor Belfort at UFC 51.
The
segment in itself is very short, but MMA fans alike will enjoy
the conversation (there is even a Tank Abbott reference). After
all- any exposure for MMA is good exposure. The sport overall
was discussed in a positive and professional manner. It was a
good introduction for first-time fans.
Look
for “Late Night with Carson Daily” – featuring
Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell to air on January 20th at 1:30am.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
OFFICIAL
ODDS FOR UFC 51
UFC 51 OPENING ODDS from World renowned MMA/BOXING Oddsmaker
Joey Oddessa of www.BetOddessa.com and consultant for www.Sportsbook.com
Joey
will be on MMAWeekly Radio today at 9:30am Pacific tomorrow with
Ryan Bennett and Frank Trigg.
UFC
51: MMA Super Saturday, February 5th, 2005 Las Vegas, Nevada
Vitor
Belfort -125
Tito Ortiz +105
Light Heavyweights
Andrei
Arlovski -120
Tim Sylvia -100
UFC Interim Heavyweight Title
David
Terrell -140
Evan Tanner +120
UFC Middleweight Title
Nick
Diaz -230
Drew Fickett
Welterweights
Chris
Lytle -110
Karo Parisyan -110
Welterweights
Joe
Riggs -185
David Loiseau +165
Middleweight
Phil
Baroni -300
Pete Sell +250
Middleweight
James
Irvin -130
Mike Kyle +110
Heavyweight
Justin
Eilers -110
Paul Buentello -110
Heavyweight
Source: MMA Weekly
|
TAYLOR
RESPONDS TO LINDLAND COMMENTS
JT Taylor responded to Matt Lindland's comments about him pulling
out of their scheduled fight for SportFight 8: Justice. Lindland
appeared on MMAWeekly SoundOff Radio last week and let it be
known that he didn't feel Taylor ever wanted to fight, called
him a coward and questioned the severity of JT's injuries that
caused him to withdraw from the bout. During the event, Matt
made some more comments about Taylor and JT has thrown down the
gauntlet. Taylor explained his injuries to MMAWeekly and had
some strong words for Matt Lindland.
"Well,
first of all, I make my living as a painter to support my family.
I have an eight month old son and I can't support him fighting,
so I work as a painter making ten bucks an hour. On the 23rd
of December, I fell off a ladder, a eight foot ladder. I sprained
my back, my shoulder and my wrist on the fall. Went to the emergency
room the very next day just because I was in so much pain. At
that time, I was told by the doctors in the ER to pull out of
the fight because I would not have enough time to prepare and
I would not be healthy enough to fight," explained Taylor.
TJ
continued, "I faxed over my medicals, actually to Team Quest.
All the medical papers the doctors gave me saying that I will
probably be out of work for six weeks and out of training for
the same amount of time. I called Team Quest and I politely said,
hey I'm going to have to pull out of the fight. I'm sorry. I
apologize. And, I was really looking forward to fighting Matt.
As time goes on, Matt decides to run his mouth, saying I was
a coward and that I was a chicken and that I could not fight.
Well, I don't know what else I was supposed to do....He has the
balls to go on, in front of the whole world, and call me a coward.
I'm saying, hey, I'm healthy. In about a months time I'll be
100% and let's get it on."
Taylor
then went on to issue a challenge and an ultimatum to Lindland.
"Basically, we got into a big screaming match for the last
couple of days and I'll fight him anywhere. I'm ready to march
down to his school and beat him up in front of his own people
with video cameras to prove I'm not a coward. He's got about
a months time before he either puts us in a fight in front of
another organization. Hell, I even challenged him to fight in
front of my hometown and he said he didn't want to come to my
cruddy hometown...to fight me for whatever reason. I'm ready.
I'm not a coward. I'll fight Godzilla if he's standing out the
front door."
TJ
went on to say, "I had a sprained wrist, a sprained back
and a messed up shoulder." "I'm on the road to recovery.
You know, people get hurt. I work a full time job. I can't support
myself and my family on fighting, so we all got to do what we've
got to do. If he doesn't respond to me and put me in a show to
fight him, either in another SportFight or I'll fight him in
my hometown, I'm going to march over to his own school and beat
him up," commented Taylor.
Further
commenting about Lindland, Taylor said, "You know, he may
beat me. He has a chance to beat me. You know what, he's never
beat me. I've went over to his school, I don't know how many
times, and tapped him out more times than he can count on his
own fingers and toes. He's never tapped me out once in all the
times we've ever trained together and I basically put the screws
to him every time."
At
the end of the interview, TJ addressed Matt Lindland directly.
"Hey man, I'm not a coward. You know what, I'll fight you
in my front yard or I'll fight you in your front yard. You've
got a month man. You either get us in a fight somewhere or I'm
marching down there with video cameras. You know, you call someone
a coward, you better back up those words because I take it serious."
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Quote
of the Day
"An idea is salvation by imagination."
Frank Lloyd Wright, 1869-1959, United States Architect
|
Bardia
Ghahremani Talks about ISA, UFC, Tito’s future and the possibilities
of a Shamrock-Ortiz II
Bardia Ghahremani is the master-negotiating powerhouse of International
Sports Agency. The California based business takes pride in treating
their clients like family, and in this ‘dog eat dog’
world filled with greedy, money-hungry back-biters, it is always
nice to see a company treat their athletes like people and not
just another dollar.
Whether
it is NFL players or Mixed Martial Arts fighters they are always
looking out for the best interest of the athletes and it shows.
Bhardia is the 29-year-old lawyer, founder, Vice President of
operations / agent, and manager of the UFC’s most colorful
fighter, Tito Ortiz. ISA has also taken on such MMA fighters
as Ricco Rodriguez, and is currently working with Tim Sylvia,
Ortiz, Yves Edwards and Kit Cope, and is diligently putting together
another “Team Punishment”.
With
hard work and dedication, Bhardia looks to get the best deal
possible for his fighters. Now with Tito fighting in his last
contracted fight with the UFC in February, all are looking out
to see what will happen next for the MMA bad boy. Will he continue
in the UFC and take on arch nemesis Ken Shamrock, who recently
called out Ortiz? Or will he entertain the many offers from other
promotions such as PRIDE, K-1 and so on? Whatever the case will
be you can be reassured Bardia will be right in the mix wheeling
and dealing for his MMA superstar.
In
an exclusive interview MAX FIGHTING conducted with the young,
successful businessman, he talks candidly about his company,
Tito’s future, and Shamrock’s recent comments. Stay
tuned to MAX FIGHTING for another exclusive interview with Tito
Ortiz when he opens up about his upcoming bout and future.
Benny
Henderson Jr. - What prompted you to get into the management
business?
Bardia
Ghahremani - My first year of law school I started representing
football players and became an NFL agent, and International Sports
Agency just started evolving and getting bigger. My friend came
up to me and told me that I really needed to look into picking
up the MMA guys. I was told that they didn’t have any agents,
just managers who were pretty much taking them to the house with
their percentages. So I looked into it and then the opportunity
arose to pick up Ricco Rodriguez through one of our ISA partners.
But unfortunately right after we signed Ricco he lost his belt
to Tim Sylvia and at that point Ricco kind of fell off; he had
knee surgery and some personal stuff he had to take care of so
we kind of separated ourselves from him and on a flip chance
we ended up picking up Tim Sylvia. So we basically picked up
back-to-back heavyweight champions, and after we had Sylvia for
a few months we ended up picking up Tito. How we picked up Tito,
ironically he had seen us and heard about us a year and a half
to two years ago, but he went with another agency and they pretty
much dropped the ball on him. They didn’t utilize his popularity.
I mean he just came off beating Shamrock and was probably at
the height of his career and was going up and they didn’t
do much with him, so at that point he cut them, and then Tito
and I were introduced one night at WWE SmackDown in San Diego
and we hung out and so on and that next week Tito wanted us to
represent him. So we picked up where the other guys sort of tried
to leave off and honestly it has taken about six months to get
going because he has so much coming at him that it is hard to
manage day-to-day because he has so many opportunities. So for
us we basically manage his whole life, from his endorsements
to his fighting contracts to anything and everything that he
requests from us. So I guess to answer your question, I just
kind of fell into the MMA, but doing what I do I am glad I did
because this is a field that is just growing and it will become
extremely huge in the next few years.
BH
- What do you see in Tito that you don’t see in any other
fighters in the sport?
BG
- Tito honestly has a charisma about him and he is extremely,
extremely intelligent. People think that he is just brash, but
if you got to know Tito on a personal level you would know that
he is one of the most intelligent people you will run across.
The guy knows what he is doing and other people have tried to
take credit for Tito, but Tito Ortiz built Tito Ortiz. Nobody
helped him build it, no managers helped him to build it, and
he did it himself. He is who he is, and that is a great guy and
a smart guy.
BH
- You also have managed football players, so which is more exciting
for you to be involved in?
BG
- Exciting part - it has to be MMA, there is nothing like it.
But it is all good when you see your athlete have a good day
at whatever he is doing.
BH
- How has it been dealing with the powers that be at ZUFFA when
negotiating for Tito?
BG
- I have had very few interactions with them because Tito was
already under contract when he signed with us, so we are just
starting to negotiate for his future. Rumors have it that they
did offer a contract for Tito to fight Ken Shamrock but Tito
wisely turned it down because at this time we have to evaluate
what the best move for Tito is. So with that being known we don’t
just assume that Tito is going to go back into the UFC because
the Shamrock fight came up. I know there have been articles written
on Shamrock and Ken is calling Tito out and saying Tito is dodging
him. But it isn’t about dodging him, it is about making
dollars and sense and making sure it is the right situation.
I like Dana White; he is a great guy. I have known him about
a year and a half now so we get along great and there are people
that work there that I am very fond of. But when it comes to
business, business is business. That is why Tito hires guys like
myself so that when the nitty gritty gets down and dirty it isn’t
personal because if they don’t have a representative, that
is when a lot of relationships can get ruined.
BH
- How is Tito’s training going at this time for his upcoming
bout against Belfort in UFC 51?
BG
- This is probably the best situation I have seen Tito in regarding
training. He went back to Big Bear and I think that was the best
move that he could have made. He looks good and I think you are
going to see the old Tito Ortiz back and ready to go.
BH
- I understand there is a video being sold following the history
of Tito Ortiz and Guy Mezger, which was made by his ex-manager.
Is this something Tito or you authorized to be used with his
name and image for video release?
BG
- Actually this is something myself - since I am a lawyer - and
a couple of associates of mine look into. This is not something
Tito authorized. I don’t know if Guy Mezger authorized it,
but we didn’t. The video is completely misleading, and in
my opinion his old manager did it for his ego and his own self-fulfillment
because the video doesn’t portray how everything came about
and how it is today. It is a poor attempt at self-glorification
on Sal Garcia’s part. I just don’t think that it was
a smart decision on his part because I think he is going to pay
more in repercussion than he understands right now.
BH
- Is this Tito’s last contracted fight with the UFC, and
if so, what future plans do you have for him that you can discuss
at this point?
BG
– Well, Tito has been offered another fight in the UFC and
we will be talking to the UFC. We have gotten a lot of inquiries
from a lot of other leagues but we are just going to look at
his career and see which avenue would be the best for him to
go down. Because right now after this fight Tito is a free agent
and this is the first time in six years he has been so, so for
Tito why would you tie yourself back down again unless it did
make sense? So for right now we will have to see after this fight
and we will look at all this collectively. And if he returns
to the UFC and fights Ken Shamrock, we will have to see, we will
sit down and look at the situation.
BH
- Bruce Buffer told me that in his opinion he thinks that Tito
is one of the top colorful, talented most marketable fighters
in the MMA today. What plans do you have to market Tito’s
image outside of the fighting arena?
BG
- To be honest with you Tito’s image outside of the fighting
arena is that he is one of the most colorful individuals, period.
Inside and outside the arena he is just an individual. When he
steps into the room he demands attention, not because he has
the attitude or is a person who is going to be disruptive, but
he has a presence where everybody notices who he is. He is going
to carry that over into the acting world and that is just a matter
of time.
BH
- Ken Shamrock said in a recent interview that Tito is running
from him because now Ken is healthy, and blatantly said that
he is punkin’ Tito out. Ken said that Dana White offered
up a fight and Tito refused to take the fight. I know you spoke
on this a little bit but can you give us some more of your thoughts
on this matter?
BG
- I can say quite frankly that Tito is by no means running or
dodging Ken Shamrock; he has already been there and done that.
So his fighting career needs to make sense in fighting Ken Shamrock
again, because if you think about it, he really doesn’t
have much to gain by fighting Ken Shamrock. Tito beats Belfort
February 5th and he will be the number one contender. Why would
you take a fight with Ken Shamrock if you are the number one
contender, what would that do for your career? If you pound Ken
Shamrock like he did in Vendetta in UFC 40, then everybody would
say, ‘well you are no better than you were before so why
did you take the fight?’ What does he have to gain by fighting
Shamrock? The only people that gain from this situation are the
UFC and Ken Shamrock because of the PPV payday for the UFC and
Ken trying to redeem himself. Tito wants his title back so why
fight Shamrock at this point? After beating Belfort, why fight
Ken? What do you have to gain from that? I guess I don’t
blame them but let’s say Tito takes the Shamrock fight right
now and it ends up going like Vendetta; what does that do for
Tito’s career? Would he be any farther ahead when he beat
Belfort? No. That is what it comes down to. It has to make sense.
Ken is a great guy and is trying to get another crack at Tito
because of course we all saw the fight being stopped in the third
round when they fought last but with that being said we will
have to see what plays out in the future. We will sit down and
look at the situation and hopefully come up with something with
the UFC that will be fair to all parties involved.
BH
- What will it take to make Ortiz-Shamrock II?
BG
- I will be honest with you, I don’t see it being reasonable
for him to fight under the same conditions and terms that he
fought this last contract under. That is something in my opinion
that just doesn’t make sense. What it would take? I don’t
know. It is nothing that is set in stone; it is not like we are
sitting here being unreasonable and we are not asking for just
unreasonable amounts of anything; we just want to make sure that
it is in the best interest of Tito. And that is why Dana White
and myself will have to sit down and talk about this because
I think this is something that can benefit both fighters. Hopefully
Dana White and myself can come to terms with Tito and make that
show happen.
BH
- What makes your company and management team different than
the others?
BG
- In MMA or just in general?
BH
- Let’s just say for the MMA since this is for an MMA site.
BG
- What makes us different from everybody else is that we don’t
charge typical fees. We are a group of people that have the best
interests of the fighters in mind. We don’t charge the fighters
20-25%; we charge 5% of their purse. That is their money. They
go in the ring and put their heart and soul on the line. We try
to make our money on the endorsement side. I know this is a young
field and we are trying to break new ways with Tito and trying
to bring new amounts to this and that. I think what we do on
the endorsement side has pretty much been unsurpassed by a lot
of people. We are working to take this sport to the next level
by working collectively with the fighters. In my opinion we are
different because we get along with the fighters; they are family
members. Our agency treats the NFL players and our fighters like
family members. We treat them like we would treat our brothers,
who we care about. We are not going to put them in a fight that
we don’t think is beneficial for them or that won’t
bring their careers to the next level. We pride ourselves in
handing all aspects of their lives - from the fighting world
to the endorsements, to if they want to buy a house we handle
the mortgages for them for free. If they want invest their money
we have investors and realtors within the company to help them.
Prior to us, it was managers, and all they did was get you fights.
We come in and are a one-stop shop. We are all family and we
take care of our family, and we try to build a future for our
fighters.
BH
- Where do you see ISA going in the future?
BG
- In the fighting world I think we are going to be the largest
agency. The sport is going to grow and I think we got on the
boat early and the boat is going to sail for quite a long time.
Source: Maxfighting
|
LAWLER
OUT VS BARONI AT UFC 51
It was one of the most anticipated fights on the card and now
it won't happen. Robbie Lawler was scheduled to meet Phil Baroni
at UFC 51, in basically what was thought to be a loser leaves
town match. Now due to an injury, Lawler won't be fighting on
the card.
Lawler
has had an elbow injury for quite some time. He sustained the
problem to the elbow in the Evan Tanner fight. Since then he
hasn't been able to lift his arm over his head. He tried to take
some cortizone shots, but still then he couldn't left his arm
over his head. Lawler wanted to give the injury time to heal,
but as we are less than a month out, he flat out couldn't go,
so the UFC had to pull him off the card.
As
far as a replacement goes, MMAWeekly.com has learned that Tony
Fryklund was contacted to face Baroni, however Fryklund wanted
to train properly against Baroni and didn't want to take the
fight on such short notice. Fryklund has taken fights on short
notice before, but at this point of his career he didn't want
to take that chance, so in comes Pete Sell from Matt Serra's
school. Sell has a perfect 4-0 in MMA.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
SHAMROCK
PUNKS ORTIZ;
TITO’S CAMP RESPONDS
In an exclusive interview with BoxingInsider, Ken Shamrock spoke
with MMAWeekly’s Ken Pishna and let it be known that a fight
between him and Tito Ortiz was in the works. He also let it be
know that he wants the fight and Tito doesn’t.
Basically,
Shamrock said that UFC president Dana White called him up to
put the fight together. Having lost to Ortiz at UFC 40, he wanted
the fight badly and told White, “This is something that
I have been waiting for for a very, very long time and I am glad
that you are going to put this together. So, whatever you need
me to do, I will do it.”
Unfortunately
for Shamrock, White called back a couple of days later saying
that Ortiz had turned the fight down. According to Shamrock,
Ortiz said that it would take a “stupid amount of money”
for him to accept the fight. Shamrock has other ideas why Ortiz
doesn’t want the fight.
“He
is running from me,” said Shamrock. “He saw when I
fought Kimo. I knocked him out… He knows that if he steps
in the ring with me, I’m going to beat him down.”
Busy
preparing for his upcoming fight with Vitor Belfort, Ortiz wasn’t
available for comment. But his agent, Bardia Ghahremani, refuted
Shamrock by saying, “There is no dodging Shamrock. We’re
not jumping into the situation because Ken calls Tito out.”
And
call out Ortiz, Shamrock did. “If he can live with the fact
that I’ve been calling him out and he doesn’t accept
this call out, then he has to live with that. Every time that
they talk about Tito Ortiz, I’m going to say, ‘I punked
him!’ He’s just been punked!"
For
his part, Ghahremani went on to point out that this fight has
more meaning for Shamrock than it does for Ortiz. “We need
to make sure that whatever we do, it’s the right situation
for Tito. Ken has a lot to gain. [His loss to Tito] is a black
mark on his camp. Tito has nothing to gain [by fighting Shamrock
again].”
The
rematch between Ortiz and Shamrock may be off for now, but the
whole situation sure puts an interesting spin on Ortiz’s
upcoming fight with Belfort. If Ortiz should win the fight, he
is back on the road to the UFC Light Heavyweight title that he
lost to Randy Couture. Not only that, but a win over Belfort
would put him on a two-fight winning streak making Ortiz much
more desirable than a third loss in four fights would.
Add
to the equation that this is the last fight on Ortiz’s current
UFC contract and things get really interesting. A win here puts
him back in the driver’s seat. “Tito is a free agent
after this fight. Shamrock is a great opportunity… but we’re
looking at the best opportunity for Tito,” commented Ghahremani.
“There are plenty of opportunities with other leagues. We
want to work with the UFC… we’re going to keep talking
about it. As far as Tito goes, we want to make sure it’s
the right situation for him.”
On
the other hand, a loss to Belfort might make the fight with Shamrock
look like a much better opportunity. Either way, there’s
plenty of heat surrounding Ortiz’s upcoming fight at UFC
51 and things are only getting hotter as the day nears.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Quote
of the Day
"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something
you want done because he wants to do it."
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1890-1969, 34th President of the United
States
|
2004
FIGHTER OF THE YEAR....
IS OUR INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK
MMAWeekly's Ryan Bennett had a chance to go one on one with BJ
Penn. In our Interview of the Week, Penn talks about his future,
his thoughts on who he should fight next and more.
MMAWeekly:
Congrats on being named the Fighter of the Year for 2004 by the
fans at MMAWeekly.com. Talk about winning the award and the fighters
you had to beat to cap a perfect year for you.
BJ
Penn: Thank you very much.
MMAWeekly:
What was the toughest fight for you this year and why?
BJ
Penn: All the fights posed a different threat. So all were hard
in there own way.
MMAWeekly:
A lot of people assumed you would be fighting on the K-1 card,
how come that never happened?
BJ
Penn: I got a bad infection in my knee. It was weird. I had a
staff infection in my knee without having a cut. I thought I
tore ligaments in my knee. I was bedridden for a week. I took
a while to go to the doctor, because I didn’t know how serious
it was. I am still recovering.
MMAWeekly:
What’s next for you as far as fights go?
BJ
Penn: I think I’m fighting in March for K-1. It might be
in Korea.
MMA:
A few fans saw you talking with Dana White at the last Super
Brawl, will we see you back in the UFC? Did Dana offer you a
fight in the UFC? If so against who?
BJ
Penn: Dana didn’t offer me a fight in the UFC. I told him
I could help him sell out an arena in Hawaii if he planned on
coming to Hawaii.
MMA:
What is your relationship right now with the UFC?
BJ
Penn: My relationship with the UFC is the same as its been since
I left. We had meetings with them and we might be able to come
back, but not to fight as the Champion. Here’s what’s
going on. I want to fight everywhere I can. The UFC doesn’t
want their champ fighting outside. So, maybe we can set up some
non-title fights.
MMA:
Do you feel you will fight in the Octagon in 2005?
BJ
Penn: It would be cool if it happened.
MMA:
How many fights do you have with K-1 and are you exclusive with
them?
BJ
Penn: I have one fight left with K-1. My K-1 contract allows
me to fight in ROTR and UFC. I made sure to put UFC in the contract
even though it was against K-1’s wishes.
MMA:
Who would you like to fight next?
BJ
Penn: I don’t know.
MMA:
Frank Trigg of course is a regular on MMAWeekly Radio. He said
he would love to fight you, would you like to fight Trigg? Why
or why not?
BJ
Penn: I will fight Trigg one day, but right now he is not the
best. I would be doing him a favor to fight him, so why doesn’t
he do me one and tell the UFC to put it on. If he wants it that
bad. I’m trying to further my career as much as I can with
each fight so why would I fight him in the Rumble when no one
knows him. He says we can pay any fighter to put in our shows.
If that’s true, why wouldn’t we get the best? Why not
a bigger name and better fighter than Trigg.
MMA:
Will we see you compete in the next Rumble on the Rock?
BJ
Penn: We don’t know for sure.
MMA:
Let’s play the name association game. We will give you a
name, tell your thoughts on the fighter. Royce Gracie.
BJ
Penn: Legend. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be doing
this interview.
MMA:
There was talk about fighting him, do you ever see the fight
happening?
BJ
Penn: Was there talk about it? I know I could beat him.
MMA:
Matt Hughes
BJ
Penn: He acts nice in person, but says stuff about me that not
so nice.
MMA:
What do you say when people say he didn’t take the fight
seriously against you and that’s why he lost?
BJ
Penn: Immediately after the fight, he said I never underestimated
you.
MMA:
Would you like to fight him in a rematch?
BJ
Penn: Yup. To prove to everybody, I can beat him the same way.
MMA:
Sean Sherk
BJ
Penn: Good fighter.
MMA:
Frank Trigg
BJ
Penn: Watch Hughes interviews before there fight, that’s
how I feel.
MMA:
Wanderlei Silva
BJ
Penn: The best right now. Soon it will be time to fight him.
Source: MMA Weekly |
Review
of K-1 New Year's Eve
The December 31st, 2004 K-1 event, which aired on TBS (the same
station in Japan that airs all of the K-1 Max shows) was a hit
success, and although it didn't match the peak ratings accomplished
at last year's New Year's Eve show, it gained ground on the NHK
Red & White special and dominated that of the Pride New Year's
Eve show, which aired on Fuji TV, in TV ratings.
The
biggest success in terms of television ratings was the Masato
Kobayshi vs. Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto fight, which drew
a 31.6 peak rating jsut after 10pm JST, which was the highest
rating for the televised portion of the show, which drew a 20.1
overall rating.
This
might be the biggest rating of Masato's career. In April 2004,
he did a peak rating of 23.2 against Serkan Yilmaz, and in July
he did a peak rating of 22.8 against Buakaw Por Puramak for the
biggest ratings which he has drawn in 2004, both of which are
blown away by the 31.6 peak for his fight against Yamamoto. Masato
ended up defeating Yamamoto by judges decision in what many considered
to be the best fight of the night, and not just for the rating
it pulled.
The
other big ratings success was the Cyril Abidi vs. Bobby Ologun
fight. To MMA insiders, the fight was considered a joke, because
Ologun is a famous Nigerian comedian on Japanese television that
was brought in for this show as a sort-of celebrity walk-on to
draw TV ratings.
The
joke, however, ended up being on Pride and NHK, as that fight
peaked out at a 30.1, which was the second highest peak for K-1
on the night. That situation is very similar to K-1 using Akebono
and Bob Sapp in high profile fights. Purists both in America
and in Japan hate it, and although Akebono, Sapp and Ologun barely
qualify as professional fighters (Akebono being sumo, Sapp being
pro wrestling, and Ologun being stand-up comedy), K-1 has always
been more about celebrity boxing than about real kickboxing,
especially in the last two or three years since the Bob Sapp
popularity boom.
The
appeal of the Masato vs. Yamamoto fight is based on the fact
that Masato is a pretty-boy type who has a lot of teenage girl
fans, plus crosses over with a mainstream audience in Japan that
would normally not watch K-1 if itfeatured, say, Alexey Ignashov
vs. Carter Williams or something in that direction.
The
overall rating of 20.1 for the show actually defeated the overall
rating for the 2003 version of the K-1 New Year's Eve special,
which did a 19.5, which included the all-time TV ratings peak
for K-1 for Bob Sapp vs. Akebono at 42.5.
The
original plan for this year's show was to feature Sapp in a rematch
against Akebono. However, the idea for the fight fell apart when
contract negotiations with Sapp went sour and K-1 instead signed
their backup plan for Akebono's opponent, which was Royce Gracie.
Sapp
ended up working out a new agreement with K-1 and was signed
to face Jerome LeBanner under strange rules, which were originally
announced as featuring K-1 rules in the first, third and fifth
rounds, and MMA rules in the second and fourth rounds. However,
despite the fact that after announcing those rules K-1 did a
coin toss to determine if the odd-numbered rounds would be under
MMA or K-1 rules, Sapp ended up fighting LeBanner under K-1 rules
in the first and third rounds and MMA rules in the second and
fourth rounds, with there being no ringside judges for the match
and if the fight itself went the distance, it would be determined
a draw, and that's exactly what ended up happening.
For
Akebono, the Royce Gracie fight was a total joke. Really, the
entire K-1 show was a joke or a mainstream celebrity tie-in extravaganza,
but, right now, that it what makes the money in Japan, because
people don't care about technique and skill and all that. People
care about celebrities and superstars. If you can turn your most
highly skilled fighters into celebrities, then all the power
to you, but for television ratings, and that's all these companies
care about when it comes to New Year's Eve, it's all about starpower
and who has the most of it.
Many
people discussed Pride's lawsuit against K-1 in regards to K-1
signing Royce Gracie when Pride has right to first refusal on
Royce's contract in Japan, but that seemed unlikely to happen
as Fedor Emelianenko had gotten into legal trouble with Pride
when he fought for Inoki Bom Ba Ye last new year's eve, but he
still did the show anyway, and Pride had signed Mark Hunt earlier
this year and Hunt fought Hidehiko Yoshida in June when K-1 claimed
that they had right to first refusal on Hunt, and he's fought
for Pride twice since that point and nothing has come of it.
Nevertheless,
Akebono had a huge weight advantage on Royce, but Royce easily
submitted him in the first round. This fight took place under
Royce Gracie Rules(TM), with the fight going two ten-minute rounds,
and if it went the distance, it would be a draw. Royce had said
that he would consider it a moral victory if it went the distance
because of the massive weight disadvantage he was facing due
to the massive weight of Akebono, but Royce locked Akebono in
an armbar quickly in the first round for the submission victory.
K-1
also claimed a ridiculously inflated attendance figure of 52,918
people in the Osaka Dome, which is a totally worked number because
I think the Osaka Dome holds like 35,000 people in capacity.
Fake attendance numbers woud be completely expected in a situation
like this in Japan with two major promotions going head-to-head
in trying to out-do each other in drawing power. A large amount
of the tickets for this show were said to be freebies, as K-1
continues to have problems selling tickets to their live events.
Match-by-match
analysis:
1.
Sylvester "The Predator" Terkey submitted Kristof Midoux
in 1:11. Predator quickly took Midoux down and submitted him
with little effort.
2.
Bobby Ologun defeated Cyril Abidi via unanimous decision. Ologun
was originally booked to face Mike Bernardo here, who pulled
out due to an injury in training. Abidi will never live this
fight down for as long as he lives. Ologun is a television comedian
from Nigeria who is a big star in Japan. They had ten counts
for a knockdown in this fight, and no kicks or knees to the head
of downed fighter. It was a boring fight, with Ologun controlling
the top position and Abidi showing less than nothing in groundfighting
ability. Abidi was able to get a knockdown in the third round,
but Ologun controlled the fight and won the decision.
3.
Yoshihiro Akiyama submitted Francois Botha in 1:54. Akiyama took
Botha down right away, and was throwing shots at him on the ground.
They ended up in the center of the ring, and Akiyama got an armbar.
Botha pretty much spent the entire fight on his back.
4.
Caol Uno submitted Chandret Sopandrey at 0:19 of the second round.
This was MMA rules with a maximum of thirty seconds on the ground,
as Sopandrey is a thai boxer and has little to no groundfighting
experience. Uno was able to take Sopandrey down a couple of times
in the first round, but the thirty second window wasn't enough
to make a go of submitting him. However, right at the beginning
of the second round, Uno took Sopandrey down and choked him out
before the time limit was up.
5.
Yoshihiro Nakao defeated Don Frye via unanimous decision. Frye
is the premium example of what a lifetime of injuries can do
to a top professional athlete. Frye hasn't won a fight in years,
but said in a recent interview with the Puroresu Power Hour that
he's basically nowhere near retirement. Frye was cut in the first
round, and I think he lost all three rounds as Nakao was able
to push the fight aggressively. Frye started to gas in the third
round, and Nakao was able to get sidemount in that round and
would go on to win the decision.
5.
Ray Sefo knocked out Gary Goodridge in 33 seconds. Sefo knocked
him down once with a big flurry of punches, and then did it again
seconds later. Goodridge couldn't get up the second time, and
instead stumbled to his corner and the fight was called. Goodridge
was totally overmatched, and it was a total domination by Sefo.
6.
Musashi knocked out Sean O'Haire at 44 seconds of the second
round. O'Haire is a former WWE and WCW wrestler who received
decent pushes with both companies, and had some sort of kickboxing
background before going into pro wrestling for WCW years ago.
He had his coming out party at Rumble on the Rock in Hawaii a
few weeks ago by destroying Shungo Ohyama. Musashi is a better
textbook kickboxer, though, than a lot of people give him credit
for, and was able to win the first round and knocked O'Haire
down once, before knocking O'Haire down twice more early in the
second round to win the fight.
7.
Masato defeated Norifumi Yamamoto by majority decision. This
was the match of the night, maybe for both shows. This was under
K-1 rules, which clearly favoured Masato because Yamamoto is
certainly more of a mixed martial arts guy. Yamamoto scored a
knockdown in the first round. Masato scored a standing count
in the second round, as it was back and forth between the two
and Yamamoto did better in under the kickboxing rules than people
had expected. It was really back and forth all the way to the
end of the fight, and there was nothing wrong with the judging
here as I think Masato did more damage than otherwise.
8.
Kazuyuki Fujita knocked out Karam Ibrahim at 1:07. Ibrahim is
just months removed from his gold medal winning performance in
Greco-Roman wrestling at the Athens Olympics. The fight was brief,
and it was almost all standing. Ibrahim was able to clock Fujita,
but Fujita came back with a very devastating right hand that
put Ibrahim out of action.
9.
Bob Sapp went to a time-limit draw with Jerome LeBanner. The
rules for this fight were ridiculous, because I think they were
pretty much set up for the most likely conclusion of the fight
to be a draw pending the survival of Sapp in the rounds that
were fought under K-1 rules and the survival of LeBanner in the
rounds that were fought under MMA rules. Sapp barely got out
of the first round, too, as LeBanner was unloading on him, knocking
him down once. Sapp was just hanging on to avoid the knockout
and make it into the second round, where he would get a chance
to finish LeBanner on the ground. Sapp was able to take LeBanner,
who is terrible at groundfighting, down right away at the beginning
of round two and got in full mount and pounded him, but was unable
to finish him before the third. Sapp spent most of the third
just hanging on again with LeBanner unloading on him, and both
fighters were badly gassed by the end of the third. Sapp looked
like he could barely stand, although he did start fighting back
near the end of the
round which drew a big reaction from the fans. In the fourth
round, they went back to the ground, with Sapp less dominating
than he was in the second. He was totally gassed at this point,
and the fight went to a time limit draw. If there were ringside
judges for the fight, it still would have been a draw on a per-round
judging system, as I think Sapp won rounds two and four, and
LeBanner took rounds one and three, so they'd be pretty much
even.
10.
Royce Gracie submitted Akebono at 2:13. The size difference made
this look like a cartoon. Royce throw a couple of low kicks,
and Akebono basically fell on top of Royce twice. The second
time Akebono did this, Royce submitted him with a nifty looking
armbar while Akebono was laying on top of him down by his legs.
Source:
Maxfighting
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2004
YEAR END AWARDS
It's time for our end of the year awards. Last week, BJ Penn
locked down the 2004 Fighter of the Year. Today we give out the
remaining awards for Fight of the Year and Organization of the
Year for 2004.
What
fight was the fight of the year for 2004?
1.
Quinton Jackson vs Wanderlei Silva 65% - Not a big surprise to
many. There wasn't a more anticpated rematch in 2004 than Silva
and Jackson. Both guys have had sensational careers and it all
came to an apex back on Halloween night October 31st. Silva and
Jackson battled at a furious pace and it was Silva landing some
of his trademark knees in the win.
2.
Olaf vs Polawkowski 20% - This fight was interesting because
many of you who said that you saw both the Jackson vs Silva fight
as well as this one, picked Olaf vs Polawkowski as a better fight
for 2005. The only problem, not many people have as much access
to WEC as they do Pride on pay per view. Either way, this was
our pick as fight of the year. Not much strategy, just the best
fight you will ever see in your life. If you get a chance to
pick it up on DVD, do so. It's WEC 9, a two disc DVD that's available
on wec.tv. You won't be sorry.
3.
Nick Diaz vs Robbie Lawler 13% - This fight should've got more
publicity than it did. Biggest problem was the fact it was on
the undercard of Chuck Liddell vs Tito Ortiz which was the most
anticipated bout, not to mention the main event with an impressive
finish. This fight was fast and furious with both fighters showing
some amazing stand up skill. One of the best fights for 2004.
4.
Royler Gracie vs Miyata 2% - Once again, this fight wasn't available
live, so you will be able to witness it next month on February
19th. This fight will be available on pay per view on satellite
and most cable networks as this fight was unbelievable to watch
brought to you by Rumble on the Rock in Hawaii. Plenty of skill
in this dynamite match-up.
5.
Pulver vs Palling - Honorable Mention. - Most people haven't
seen it, but ask anyone in either Hawaii and Japan and it was
one of the most intense stand up fights you will ever see. Both
guys threw wicked body and head shots and it was amazing that
both guys stood for so long. This fight took place August 9th
in Shooto and is a must see event, if you get the chance.
Organization
of the Year for 2004
1.
Pride 52% - DSE/Pride had a monster year for 2004. A couple of
Grand Prix's that had some loaded match ups gave them the top
spot for 2004. It will be interesting to see if they can follow
it with three potential Grand Prix's for 2005. If they do they
could be back on the top spot for next year as well.
2.
UFC 19% - The one thing that fed up fans this past year was the
fact that the UFC didn't spend money to keep their top stars,
namely, BJ Penn. You could argue there wasn't a better show top
to bottom, 1-8 then UFC's 44-50. Matchmaker Joe Silva did a great
job with the undercards, especially. UFC needs to focus more
on mega fights, which will cost them some money. Right now the
UFC believes the "name brand" UFC is a bigger seller
than most of the fighters. We shall see if they are right. Other
then solid shows, Dana White and his crew got a TV deal put together
that starts this month. This could be the biggest thing to happen
to the sport in a long time. If all goes well, UFC could very
well be in the top spot next year as well as a household name.
3.
Rumble on the Rock 18% - Has any organization made bigger strides
in one year than Rumble on the Rock? Some of our writers actually
made ROTR the organization of the year for 2004 because no one
has done as much as ROTR in one year. Once again though, until
they can get on PPV, just a few days after an event like Pride,
instead of a couple of months, that will be their biggest hurdle
for 2005.
4.
WEC 10% - WEC is another mid major promotion that put on amazing
fights. Everyone has heard of at least Olaf vs Polawkowski, but
other fights like Joe Riggs vs Alex Steibling were just as good
and the WEC consistantly put on great fights for 2004. They even
got on TV on HDNet and continue to make strides as one of the
best organzations in the United States.
5.
SuperBrawl 2% - T Jay Thompson had a very good last half of 2004.
Hawaii has been spoiled now with two organizations ranked in
the top five in the world for 2004. SuperBrawl finished with
a great card that featured Tim Sylvia vs Wes Sims and with their
DVD sales going very well, look for Thompson to put even better
cards together for 2005.
Source: MMA Weekly |
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