I’m f*ckin’ winging this one, kids. Like I said last week, there ain’t a whole lot going on right now, but I’d like to keep everyone updated on the latest happenings in Ultimate Fighting Championship. Of course, the biggest news this week is my birthday. This Thursday I turn 33, and I’m not f*ckin’ happy about it. Make me feel better, and buy me a present.
Okay, enough with the bullshit, let’s get to it…
LIDDELL SURGERY A SUCCESS
UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell is currently sporting a big cast, going from his foot to his knee, after having surgery to repair a broken toe over the weekend. The Champ was on hand at Friday night’s WEC 19: Undisputed event. Liddell told the crowd that he expects to return in August, most likely against Babalu.
WEC IS TO UFC WHAT OVW IS TO WWE
WEC is starting to grow on me. The last two live events on HDNet were pretty damn good. They have a lot of raw talent on their roster, and I can see some of these guys ending up in UFC. WEC Light Heavyweight Champion Scott Smith is already UFC bound; dropping down to 185 for his debut at UFC 59. Rob McCullough could potentially dominate the Lightweight division in UFC. He is huge for 155; kind of like Joe Riggs at 170. I would love to see Olaf Alfonzo in UFC. He would also be a threat in the Lightweight division, but he desperately needs to work on his defense. I’ve never seen someone open themselves up to so much punishment. However, win or lose, Olaf is one of the most exciting fighters in MMA.
UFC 59 UPDATE
Sean Sherk is scheduled to face Nick Diaz at UFC 59. This will probably be Sherk’s last fight at 170 pounds. Rumor has it that a three-fight deal is on the table for Sherk to compete at 155.
Terry Martin vs. Jason Lambert was added to the UFC 59 card. Last time we saw Martin he was on the receiving end of a flying knee from James Irvin at UFC 54. I’m sure Martin has skills, but I’ll never forget seeing his pudgy little body layed out on the canvas. It brings a smile to my face just thinking about it. Since that loss, Martin has won back to back fights, both in King of the Cage, and Lambert has won 10 of his last 11 fights.
UFC 60 UPDATE
Diego Sanchez vs. John Alessio appears to be back on again, most likely at UFC 60. Their scheduled fight at UFC 58 was canceled due to Sanchez’s health.
THE CHAMP NEEDS A RAISE
Rich Franklin was recently interviewed by The Wrestling Observer and discussed his UFC contract.
“The thing with me is that I signed a contract with somebody so I’m going to stick to that contract. Yeah, I could sit back and complain about it. Anybody always wants to make more money. But the alternative for me is to be teaching high school and making $45,000, maybe $50,000 a year and I’m making way better money now. Who am I to complain? Like I said, yeah, I would love to make more money. Going back, my face has been plastered all over Spike TV. You can give credit to UFC for that. I’ve been on the cover of Men’s Fitness. I’ve been featured in Muscle & Fitness. I’ve been featured in Stuff magazine. So I’ve done all these things with the UFC this year.
That’s not myself or my personal agent pushing me to get in that stuff because I don’t have one. The organization has done a lot for me. That all in turn comes back on me. I have people that want to hire me for seminars, make appearances at smaller shows, selling t-shirts off the website, and stuff like that.
I’m just one of those kinds of people, I don’t get jealous about things. I’m not going to look back and be upset with the organization. They signed me to a deal, they got a sweet deal. They knew what they were doing. They signed me before I was popular and knew that they were going to market me because they had something good. But that’s how business is. They were smart on their end. I’m not going to be like one of these athletes that after a year of doing real well, I’m out there demanding a whole bunch of money or I’m not going to fight.
Even if I did that, where else am I going to go? I can fight for the UFC or I can fight for nobody else. You don’t have many choices. It’s not like a football player that demands more money from the Cincinnati Bengals and they don’t want to pay him and he has 31 other teams in the league to choose from.”
Why the f*ck is The Wrestling Observer interviewing Ace? I hate when MMA gets lumped in with professional wrestling. Goddamn Meltzer. Leave the MMA coverage to the MMA guys, f*cko.
UFC IN WSJ
This one came out of left field…UFC recently made news in The Wall Street Journal. It’s a pretty interesting read, and it shows just how f*cking clueless some boxing purists are.
LAS VEGAS — With its history of glitzy championship bouts, this city’s famous gambling Strip is boxing’s home turf. But when longtime fans Brian Schulz and Derek Ellis drove five-plus hours here from northern Utah one recent Saturday night, the hottest fight in town wasn’t staged in a boxing ring. It was inside “the Octagon.”
The Octagon is the eight-sided, fenced-in battleground used by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the martial arts-inspired circuit that is fast gaining popularity nationwide. Here in Las Vegas, the sport — known for its chokeholds, elbow punches and acrobatic takedowns — is making a run at boxing’s supremacy.
Rich ‘Ace’ Franklin throws David ‘The Crow’ Loiseau to the mat during a March 4 Ultimate Fighting bout at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
For decades, Las Vegas was the biggest venue for boxing’s prizefights, featuring ring stars like Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe and Lennox Lewis. But with few new marquee names and younger spectators craving harder, faster action, heavyweight boxing’s golden era has faded. The Ultimate Fighting Championship is muscling in with corporate sponsors, pay-per-view specials and star-flecked audiences. On Feb. 4, boldface names like Paris Hilton, Cindy Crawford and Charles Barkley showed up for a championship Ultimate Fighting event at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.
Dana White, the UFC’s 36-year-old president, says the sport fills a void left by boxing’s failure to adapt to fans’ changing tastes. “The UFC is the most exciting combat sport in the world because there are so many ways to win and so many ways to lose,” he says. “Boxing is your father’s sport.”
On March 4, Mr. Schulz, 41, was among more than 10,000 fans who paid between $50 and $450 to watch the action at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, also in Las Vegas. He likes to describe Ultimate Fighting as “a purer sport than boxing.” For one thing, it’s more violent.
Ultimate Fighting is a so-called mixed martial-arts event that combines karate, judo, jiu-jitsu, boxing, wrestling and old-fashioned street fighting. The result is a sport that features many more ways for combatants — wearing thin, fingerless gloves, not the padded boxing kind — to effect maximum carnage.
The object is simple: overwhelm the opponent by whatever means necessary, save a few banned tactics like biting. If a fight doesn’t lead to a knockout or surrender, then a panel of three judges uses a scoring system to determine the winner.
The early March card at Mandalay showcased Ultimate Fighting’s fast pace and brutality. In one match, Jason Lambert and Rob MacDonald sparred like boxers for a minute or so. Then, Mr. Lambert drove his head into Mr. MacDonald’s midsection and piled him into the mat. Squatting on his face, Mr. Lambert twisted and wrenched his opponent’s left arm backward in an unnatural and painful trajectory. Grimacing in pain, Mr. MacDonald “tapped out,” banging his free hand on the mat in the UFC’s universal “mercy” signal.
In a later match, Mike Swick was quickly tossed to the mat by opponent Steve Vigneault. But Mr. Swick instantly turned the tables with a move called “The Guillotine Choke.” Cradling his opponent’s head in his elbow, between bulging biceps and his forearm, Mr. Swick squeezed hard and temporarily cut off Mr. Vigneault’s ability to breathe.
Boxing promoter Gary Shaw attributes Ultimate Fighting’s rise to a generation inured to violence and mayhem — the sort commonly depicted in movies and videogames. “The mixture of wrestling with boxing and the fact that it’s not staged goes to the bloodthirsty segment of the population,” he says.
The fights are bona fide competitions, part of the official Ultimate Fighting Championship circuit. The UFC is the leading force among a growing number of slickly packaged versions of a sport that has evolved from unregulated, no-holds-barred free-for-alls staged in bars and Indian casinos a few years ago. Those brawls attracted the attention of regulators and other critics as long as a decade ago. Sen. John McCain described the sport as a “human cockfight” and sought to ban the competitions.
Rather than collapse under government scrutiny, the sport’s proponents decided to adopt formal rules and regulations. Over the past several years, they worked with states like New Jersey and Nevada to ensure that officials would authorize them to stage fights.
Today, the UFC has weight classes, ringside doctors and a scoring system that is similar to boxing. It has also reined in some violence, outlawing such crowd-pleasing tactics as eye-gouging, head-butting and biting. Mixed martial-arts events are now sanctioned by more than 20 state athletic commissions. The most recent state to sign on was California, where in September Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation allowing the bouts.
The UFC has shrewdly built a following with flashy marketing that appeals to the coveted 18- to 34-year-old male sought by everyone from Maxim magazine to beer makers. A weekly reality show on Viacom Inc.’s Spike TV features contestants vying for a spot on the UFC circuit; it draws a weekly average of two million viewers. At the events, ear-splitting rock music plays over endless highlight reels between fights, and big-screen ads pitch BMW cars and coming movie thrillers like “The Hills Have Eyes.” Also prominently featured are ads for the league’s DVD titles like “Ultimate Beatdowns Vol. 1.” In Nevada, casino bettors can now make wagers on the fights.
In Las Vegas and some other cities, the audience for Ultimate Fighting matches can now rival or surpass big boxing matches. For the Super Bowl weekend matchup between Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell — UFC stars capable of earning $1 million or more per year — about 10,300 people packed the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Tickets ranged from $50 to $750, but scalpers commanded well above face value. Most fans were in their seat for the entire card, not just the marquee matchup. An image of spectator Paris Hilton, flashed on the big screen, drew lusty boos from the raucous crowd. The event took in about $3.4 million.
A few weeks later, a big junior middleweight boxing match was held at Mandalay Bay between “Sugar” Shane Mosely and Fernando Vargas, two of the sport’s few remaining brand-name fighters. Though the venue seats nearly 11,000, only about 8,500 fans showed up to watch the bout. The fight took in about $3.5 million. A spokesman for Mandalay Bay’s owner, MGM Mirage, declined to comment on why the venue did not sell out.
Although big names in boxing acknowledge the ring’s flagging appeal, they don’t necessarily blame the UFC. Don King, the boxing promoter, thinks an aging demographic, the loss of recognizable names in the heavyweight classes and a disappearance from network television have all crippled the sport. “Since network television left boxing, people can’t identify with the fighters,” Mr. King says.
“If boxing were a stock, I’d sell it short,” says Bert Randolph Sugar, a longtime boxing writer who’s enshrined in the sport’s hall of fame. Even so, Mr. Sugar dismisses Ultimate Fighting as little more than “bar fights without the beer bottles.”
I want to bite Bert Randolph Sugar’s face.
WRAPPING IT UP
If all goes well with the house inspection today, I’ll be closing on a new house on March 31st. I will most likely be M.I.A. until April 7th, with a review of Ultimate Fight Night, unless something huge comes up between now and then.
Finally, I’m harassing Patrick Nguyen to bring me on IP Sports Radio the week of UFC 59. That show is in desperate need of some fight talk. There’s only so much NASCAR talk people can handle; especially when delivered in Steve Price’s awful drawl.
