Countdown To Inside Pulse V3 – Inside Fights Preview

Archive, Site News

On Monday September 18th, Inside Pulse will usher in a new era of diehard pop culture coverage for diehard pop culture fans. For the next 2 weeks, one per day, Inside Pulse is giving you a sneak peek of what we have planned for the big day. These are just previews to give you a taste, with a sample of the type of articles you will see on each zone. When we launch fully on the 18th, you’ll see the full new layout and zone sites.

On a mat, in a ring, or in the octagon, InsideFights looks at the top stories in combat sports each day with hard-hitting analysis of news coming out of the worlds of mixed martial arts, boxing and more. But don’t bother trying to catch your breath, because our opinions extend beyond breaking news on broken noses. With commentary on every major MMA event and TV show, as well as the top boxing matches in the world, we aren’t afraid to mix it up with our readers, or even each other. The first rule of InsideFights is always talk about InsideFights … as long as you’re prepared to get your ass kicked and your teeth bashed in.

What You Can Expect:

Into The Pit: The Self-Destruction of an Ultimate Fighter:

Stephan Bonnar was a favorite of mine on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. In fact, I even rooted for him in his now-legendary fight against Forrest Griffin in the TUF 1 finale. Since losing to Griffin in April of last year, Bonnar has had an interesting run in UFC.

  • 08/06/05: Defeated Sam Hoger via decision at Ultimate Fight Night I.
  • Hoger gave Bonnar a run for his money, which sort of surprised me, due to seeing more of Sam’s skills as an asshole on TUF 1 than his skills as a fighter. Overall this one was a bit lackluster, but Bonnar’s last fight was a tough act to follow.

  • 01/16/06: Defeated James Irvin via submission at 4:30 of round one at Ultimate Fight Night III.
  • This was a bit of a shock. Irvin was being hyped as a potential threat to the Light Heavyweight title at the time and a win against Bonnar would’ve brought him one step closer to a match with Chuck Liddell. Bonnar’s victory by Kimura was very impressive and made most people forget about his last fight.

    Posted by Reverend Sick in Inside Fights (09.08.2006) – full link

    MMA Preview for PRIDE FC: Final Conflict Absolute
    Preview: PRIDE FC Final Conflict Absolute 2006: Open-Weight GP Tournament Finals

    INTRO

    Hi, I’m Gordi Whitelaw. You may remember me from such columns as: Pro Wrestling Entrance Themes to Help you Score with Smart People and The Art of Wrestling’s Japanese Vacation. If so, you may remember that I am very much of the opinion that Japanese Professional Wrestling is far superior to mainstream American Pro Wrestling. You might even think that I am about to tell you how much better Japanese MMA is than American MMA, or that PRIDE rules and UFC stinks.

    Don’t worry, I’m not going to do that. I like PRIDE more than I like UFC, but not all that much more. Both have a ton of strong points, and I think that we as MMA fans are blessed to be able to watch both. I also think that some of the smaller MMA organizations put on fights from time to time that rival the best matches in the big organizations. I plan to get into all of that stuff later. For now, let’s talk about the upcoming PRIDE card.

    THE BIG SHOW

    PRIDE Final Conflict Absolute will be held at Saitama Super Arena on September 10, 2006. The card will see the culmination of the Open-Weight Grand Prix tournament that began at Total Elimination Absolute on May 5th, and continued at the superb Critical Countdown Absolute on July 1. In theory, the tournament was supposed to match up fighters from all the different weight classes, to determine once and for all just who is the best fighter in PRIDE. In practice, it was more or less another Heavyweight tourney, with a few pumped up Light-Heavyweights thrown into the mix.

    Both of the GP semifinal matches look amazing on paper, and both are very tough to call. They are also set up so that the final bout will almost certainly be a classic striker vs. grappler battle. The rest of the card, with one exception, looks to be more than worthy of supporting such a huge event.

    Posted by Gordi Whitelaw in Inside Fights (09.08.2006) – full link

    MMA Retro-Review for UFC 18: The Road To The Heavyweight Title

    UFC 18: The Road To The Heavyweight Title

    01/08/99
    New Orleans, Louisiana

    -We open with a video package highlighting the mini-tournament for the Heavyweight Title, as well as Pat Miletich’s first Lightweight title defense. On a completely unrelated note, it’s hard to believe that I only have seven UFC shows left to review before I’ve done them all!

    -Your hosts are Mike Goldberg and Jeff Blatnick. They talk about the HW fights between Coleman and Rizzo, and Rutten and Kosaka, before giving us a couple of mini-soundbites from them, with Coleman admitting to having bad cardio in the past, while Rutten talks about the hype surrounding his US debut.

    -They introduce us to the judges for the night, one of which is none other than Dave Meltzer. Yeah, THAT Dave Meltzer. Pretty weird to see, I have to admit.

    Posted by Scott Newman in Inside Fights (09.08.2006) – full link

    Body Blows: James Toney vs. Samuel Peter
    A lot of hype was put into last weekend’s heavyweight bout between James Toney and Samuel Peter. For a non-title fight, the buzz was outstanding. James Toney, who has never been knocked out in his career, took on Samuel Peter, the hardest-hitting heavyweight Toney has faced. Unlike many heavyweight contests, this fight lived up to the hype. Now we just need to get that decision turned around.

    James Toney vs. Samuel Peter

    The scoring in boxing is very subjective. That being said, if you thought Samuel Peter won that fight then you are wrong. James Toney was busier, quicker, and displayed much better defense. Toney picked Peter off with ease throughout the fight, punishing the defenseless Peter. To his credit, Peter hung in the fight and landed some heavy punches, but not nearly enough to warrant the split decision victory he was given.

    Most of Peter’s hard shots were landed in the early rounds, rounds that James Toney should have been scored as winning. Toney effectively countered Peter early and showed enough defensive agility to win the rounds. Toney’s conditioning was a big question coming into this fight, but Peter looked like the more out-of-shape fighter. Peter is not known for his stamina and came into the fight weighing 257 lbs, one of the heaviest weights of his young career. Toney came in at a flabby 237 against Hasim Rahman and weighed in at 233 lbs against Peter. Toney is never going to look like he is chiseled from stone, more like molded from jello.

    Sam Peter must have felt like he was behind because he picked up his intensity as the fight went on. It was interesting to see how the younger Peter would handle the experienced Toney. It wasn’t a question of if Toney would frustrate Peter, but how. The frustration for Peter came out in the ninth round. Toney had Peter clinched on the ropes and the referee called for a break. Peter, instead of breaking, gave Toney some double-fisted clubbing earmuffs. A point was taken from Samuel Peter, making the decision even more startling. The final scores were 116-111 Peter, 115-112 Toney, and 116-111 Peter.

    This fight was a title eliminator for the WBC belt held by Oleg Maskaev. Toney wants to get back in the ring with Peter and Maskaev has been linked to a unification bout with Wladimir Klitschko. Klitschko has a lot of options right now so Maskaev may immediately take the fight with Sam Peter. That would be a pure brawl that hopefully will stay off of PPV. The early numbers for the Rahman/Maskaev II pay-per-view are around 60,000 buys. That is pathetic. Naked News TV generates more buys than that.

    Posted by Trent Pusey in Inside Fights (09.08.2006) – full link

    Shelly on Bonnar, IFL and TUF4
    Willlburrr.

    Stephan Bonnar, as reported by MMAWeekly and commented on by our own Reverend Sick, tested positive for steroids following his UFC 62 bout with Forrest Griffin.

    The substance found in his system was, as I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Boldenone Metabolite, which is used to rehabilitate injured horses.

    It’s no laughing matter, as anabolic steroids on the whole are illegal and dangerous. Furthermore, Stephan Bonnar is facing a pending suspension and a fine of up to $250,000.

    Even so, Sick’s reply didn’t include near enough horse jokes. So let’s re-examine the situation.

    Stephan Bonnar took steroids intended for horses. Stephan Bonnar lost his fight against a human anyway and didn’t even make a tremendously good showing of it. Is this surprising? No. Horses rarely train MMA. Horses can’t even throw a decent punch. If Bonnar had consistently tried more back kicks, this all would’ve made infinitely more sense and we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.

    Posted by Shelly in Inside Fights (09.08.2006) – full link

    Who Are The Inside Fighters?

    Reverend Sick (editor) – Reverend Sick, a.k.a. Sickboy, has been a fixture of the IWC and IMC for over a decade. A fan of mixed martial arts since UFC 1, Sick brings his unique brand of uncensored, opinionated commentary on UFC exclusively to InsideFights. Sick is an Aries, loves busty brunettes and redheads, cigarettes, comic books, and is said to be so metal that he actually rusts.

    Gordi Whitelaw (MMA) – At various times in his 40 years, Gordi has been a professional wrestler, a nightclub doorman, a guest lecturer in creative writing in the Czech Republic, a football coach, and a jazz musician. Not your stereotypical MMA junkie, Gordi’s presently the Director of a small church camp in British Columbia, yet still has time to obsess over Japanese pro wrestling and MMA promotions from PRIDE to HERO*S, Cage Rage and more.

    Scott Newman (MMA) – Scott has been hooked on MMA since 2003, so don’t call him a ‘TUF n00b’ or else his fist may fly towards your face. From UFC and PRIDE to smaller promotions around the world, if it involves two guys fighting in a cage or a ring, you can bet that Scott will be there to watch, analyze and give his two cents. He also happens to be the prettiest guy at InsideFights, in that Axl Rose way.

    Shelly (MMA) – Librarian by day, fight fanatic by night, Shelly will give any self-proclaimed ‘tough guy’ a run for his money when discussing the intricacies of mixed martial arts. InsideFights’ expert analyst of The Ultimate Fighter, she will also chime in on hot topics and top stories buzzing around the MMA scene.

    Trent Pusey (Boxing) – Offering reviews of boxing’s biggest fights and news from boxing’s top ranked fighters. From pay-per-view to Friday Night Fights; Butterbean to Bald Bull — if it’s boxing then Trent has you covered.

    [Other Fighters]

    Iain Burnside (MMA)
    Jeremy Botter (MMA)
    Rokk Adam (Boxing)

    Jonathan Widro is the owner and founder of Inside Pulse. Over a decade ago he burst onto the scene with a pro-WCW reporting style that earned him the nickname WCWidro. Check him out on Twitter for mostly inane non sequiturs