Sunday Soccer Kicks

Well, it’s Sunday and in the wake of UFC 152 you are probably crawling out of bed right now, head throbbing, wondering why you decided to pound so many beers in between rounds last night. Don’t act like I’m the only one who slams a beer in the 60 seconds between rounds, you know you do it too, and if you don’t then this site is not for you. I’m starting off slow today, so let’s enjoy some footage of Shogun Rua soccer kicking his opponent into oblivion back during the glory days of Pride FC. This clip is brutal, one of my favorites, and a perfect metaphor for how my head is feeling right now. Enjoy.

JJ's UFC152 Picks

Remember that scene in Pulp Fiction when Samuel L. Jackson tells Tim Roth that he is trying really, really hard to be the shepherd? That’s sort of how I feel, only I’m not trying to be a shepherd, or in the case of Samuel L. Jackson’s character, not shoot a man in the face in the middle of a crowded diner, but instead I am battling my own personal demon who I have named Balthazar Getty the Demon. Now what Balthazar Getty the Demon does is he prevents from feeling any sort of excitement towards UFC152’s main event and co-main event. I’m stoked for Bisping/Stann and Oliveira/Swanson, but that’s it. I wanted Jones/Hendo and Benavidez/McCall. Anyway with a new UFC event comes new predictions, so check out my picks for this weekend’s card over on Arm Chair Nation. Just click the link below.

UFC 152 Predictions on Armchairnation.com

Frank Mir's Out...

I am slowly coming to peace with the fact that there are several things in life that I will never be able to do because I am in fact dirt poor and barring some insane lottery win or a Vegas trip that actually pays off I will probably remain that way and will someday have to be housed by my yet unborn children because by the age of 65 I will have foolishly squandered every cent I’ve ever made hoping to win the lottery or trying to make a Vegas trip pay off. I recently added to the list, which mostly contains activities such as yachting, infinity pools, and penthouse suites at the Wynn, is Frank Mir v. Daniel Cormier. Mir pulled out of the fight yesterday citing a knee injury, and dammit, I’m disappointed. It’s unclear how long Frank is out or who will be Dan’s final Strikeforce opponent. 

TUF Recap

TUF kicked off last night with 32 welterweight fighters hoping for a shot in the UFC. As the WWs arrived at Mandalay they were greeted with a profanity laced rant from Dana White which, thanks to the censors at FX, made little to no sense. Shane Carwin looked especially uncomfortable next to Roy Nelson who had a seemingly never ending bag of cheeseburgers and a bucket of coke. Then my doorbell rang, the pizza was here. Josh works for Domino’s and has delivered three pizzas to me a week for the last two years, we’ve become tight. He told me he was having a crappy night and asked for a beer before going back. We ended up playing a game of Madden before his boss called his cell wondering where he was. Anyway that’s how I assume the night would have gone if I wasn’t at work. I didn’t watch TUF.

Play the Dana White Drinking Game

Next time you’re bored do what I do: play the Dana White drinking game. It’s really simple, start with a bottle of Sailor Jerry (or whatever happens to be in your particular liquor cabinet), turn on a random interview/press conference with Dana, and take a swig anytime he drops an F bomb. If it happens to be from the infamous UFC151 incident you are guaranteed to wake up the next morning like a frat boy on Spring Break. Dana recently went off on Jon Jones and Greg Jackson, again, and he sounded like a sailor on shore leave, voicing his displeasure with everyone and saying how he can’t wait to get alone with Jon Jones in a small room in Toronto and figure this out man to man. Anyway, you should check out the full story HERE, it’s well worth it, so long as you do the bottle thing. 

Do We Really Need GSP/Silva?

They’re back again, whispers of a Super Fight between GSP and Anderson Silva, and this time Dana is on board talking Cowboy’s Stadium in 2013. If Anderson wants to keep competing there is work to be done at Middleweight: Weidman, Stann, Bisping. In GSP’s case now is not the time, the Welterweights have been holding since he fought Shields in April 2011 and new threats have emerged: Hendricks, Ellenberger, Kampmann, and Interim Champ Condit; GSP has work to do before talking Silva. I know most will disagree, but I am more interested in seeing Champions fight in their own divisions, not Super Fights for the sake of finding out who is the best. I just see this as an instance of if Anderson wins he did what he was supposed to do, if he loses than they say he was always overrated; it’s the same for GSP.

Weidman/Boetsch added to UFC155

In a middleweight bout that I don’t think anyone ever asked for yet oddly makes sense, if you think of it only as busy work, Chris Weidman and Tim Boetsch have been tapped to face each other at UFC155. Weidman is 5-0 since joining the UFC and Boetsch is 4-0 since dropping to middleweight, including the lackluster derailment of Hector Lombard’s hype train. With Anderson Silva sitting out until sometime in 2013 and in talks for a superfight with GSP it’s hard to imagine the winner of this fight not facing the winner of Bisping/Stann for the number one contender slot as Silva weighs his options. This means if the superfight actually happens, the MW Championship could sit undefended until sometime next summer. Somewhere in England Michael Bisping just choked a little on his earl grey.

Holy Crap! Hector Lombard is Fighting Rousimar Palhares

I just got released from the hospital after a month of near death experiences so don’t expect much from me, but at least give me an “A” for effort for trying to blow the dust off MMA150 and get it going again after weeks of having red stuff drained out of my liver through five separate tubes (No, it was not alcohol related either). Hector Lombard needs to blow the dust off whatever the hell that was at UFC149 and try and get back on track, the problem is he’s going to be facing off against Rousimar Palhares whose name literally translates to, “The Remover of Limbs” this December at UFC on FX 6. Lombard claims he was injured last time out which led to his poor performance, but this fight should finally answer all the questions about where he truly ranks as a middleweight.   

An MMA150 Update

If you are a frequent reader of MMA150, you may have noticed a large stretch of inactivity. You would be correct. But I have not shut down the blog, or lost interest, or anything of the sort; I have been very under the weather. I hope to continue work on the blog again as soon as I can get my ass out of bed and start feeling ok. Hopefully it won’t be much longer.

Cheers,

JJ

The Carwin/Nelson Build Up is Just.... Awful

Like a bad hangover, I wish that TUF would just go away, because it leaves me feeling sick to my stomach, sprawled on the couch, clutching my liver, gasping for air and occasionally vomiting into a small plastic bucket. I just can’t take Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin serious as I watch them try to build hype for their upcoming coaching gigs and eventual fight. “Hey let’s trade verbal jabs on twitter, cuz that’s cool, wait, people actually use twitter? Crap, we better delete our comments.” Let’s not forget one of them calling the other a “keyboard warrior” I’m not sure who said it, because I don’t care, and I have no idea what that means unless he was referring to World of Warcraft; the only thing worse than this Carwin/Nelson feud is Nick Diaz calling out Anderson Silva, Busch Lite, or possibly Greedo shooting first, possibly.

Jon Fitch to face Erik Silva

I’m used to being the lone supporter of Jon Fitch in a room full of MMA fans, but that’s cool, I’m also probably the only person you will ever meet who loved “Cowboy’s and Aliens” and at 26 years old still holds on to the childhood dream of someday becoming a Space Pirate… or Warlock, but not the Charlie Sheen kind, the magical, Voldemort kind. As with anytime a Fitch fight is announced, fans have taken to the message boards and Twitterverse to express their displeasure in his “boring” style. Personally I don’t see what is so boring about someone who completely shuts down the game of 90% of his competition, in fact I consider that damn impressive. Jon Fitch will return to the octagon this October at UFC 153 in Brazil where he will take on Welterweight stand out Erik Silva.

Shogun/Vera Winner Gets Championship Fight

Does anyone else think this is a not-so-clever attempt to entice new fans into buying PPVs? Vera does not deserve a title shot even if he does upset Shogun; also FOX’s “Road to the Octagon” made no mention of his previous fight with Jon Jones so are we supposed to assume that never happened? Likewise I can’t remember the last time I heard anyone clamoring for Shogun/Jones 2. But it’s doubtful that new fans will know any of this, they will think they are getting a true number one contender fight, which in turn will cause at least some of them to throw down $50 on Vera/Shogun v. Jones 2 (I’m aware I’m not even entertaining the idea of Dan Henderson beating Jon Jones, but that’s because I’m not even entertaining the idea of Dan Henderson beating Jon Jones.)  

Nick Diaz is Joking, Right?

Finding out Nick Diaz wants a “comeback” fight with Anderson Silva was one hell of a way to wake up this morning. First of all, a “comeback” fight? Dude is suspended, let’s not glorify that; the only reason he is pseudo-retired is because he “quit” MMA when he didn’t get his way against Condit which is the equivalent of a toddler storming off the playground when he can’t have the monkey bars. He also only wants “fights that matter” now; remember when he was supposed to fight GSP for the championship, did that not matter? BJ Penn? The Interim Title? What about the Strikeforce title and Frank Shamrock? Nearly every fight he’s had for the last four years “has mattered”. But seriously, Anderson Silva, really, this is the road he wants to go down? It’s ridiculous to think Silva wouldn’t pick him apart in under a round. 

Frank Mir Moving to Strikeforce

I take one day off from MMA only to come back and be more surprised than Cloud calling Aeris a “slum drunk” only to have Barret show up knocking on his door late one night at the Gold Saucer asking him to go on a “man walk” with him, because it’s not a date. Things get stranger when they cram inside a romantic carriage for two where Barret starts talking about the women they’re traveling with while Cloud remains silent. Barret takes this silence to mean that Cloud is interested in his five year old daughter and starts firing off live ammunition. The “man walk” abruptly ends. Still, Frank Mir crossing over to Strikeforce to face Daniel Cormier surprised me a little more. It’s a welcome surprise that will show if Cormier really has it and if Frank still has it. Afterward both men will land safely in the UFC.

Palhares Injured; Out of Okami Fight

I found myself wondering if apes gained hyper intelligence and took over the planet if they would create combat sports and their own form of ape Jiu-Jitsu; if they did, that would be crazy, could you imagine getting into a grappling contest with an Ape, they have like four hands and I would be terrified of the ones that have tails. An Ape Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt with a tail is about the most frightening thing I can think of next to Christopher Walken. Let’s hope our world never gets to that point. Rousimar Palhares could probably hang with an AJJ Black Belt longer than most, but unfortunately he has suffered an undisclosed injury and has withdrawn from his fight with Yushin Okami, drag. Okami now faces Buddy Rogers. And yes, I just watched Planet of the Apes.

Let's Remember Why We Love BJ Penn

If movie quotes have taught me anything it is that the Devil’s greatest trick was convincing the world that he didn’t exist, that’s from the Usual Suspects, which I have never seen all the way through even though I have seen the entire movie on more than one occasion, wrap your head around that. Anyway, I think that was the Devil’s third greatest trick right behind putting Football on Sunday during church hours and convincing us that a 5’6 featherweight punching bag from New Jersey could beat BJ Penn not once, but twice. It stills breaks my heart when I think about that, but I am in a BJ Penn sorta mood right now and you should be too, so take 5 minutes out of your day and enjoy this highlight reel.

(Thanks to TheEmperorMMA for putting this all together)

Alan Belcher v. Vitor Belfort Going Down in Brazil

(Adorable)

Alan Belcher is finally getting some attention after failing to pick fights with just about everyone in the middleweight division. After failing to secure a bout with Michael Bisping, Belcher turned his attentions to Vitor Belfort and the Brazilian was eager to take the fight. The two have agreed to meet as part of the main card of UFC153 in Rio de Janeiro which will be headlined with a Featherweight Championship fight between Jose Aldo and Erik Koch. Belfort hasn’t fought since an early January submission victory over Anthony Johnson; Belcher is riding a four fight win streak, most recently defeating Rousimar Palhares by TKO in May. A win over a high profile fighter like Belfort would put Belcher in great position to challenge MW King Anderson Silva, who is currently still seeking his next opponent. UFC153 goes down October 13th.

BJ Skips Press Conference; MacDonald Threatens Injury

BJ Penn made headlines yesterday when he was a no show for the UFC 152 Press Conference. Penn cited a “family circumstance” as the reason for his absence but his opponent, Rory MacDonald, took it as a sign that BJ is not properly preparing for the fight. MacDonald went on to warn BJ that he has no qualms about seriously injuring him during their fight. I’m not a fan of the BJ/Macdonald match up and I think BJ should be left alone on a pristine Hawaiian beach drinking an exotic cocktail out of a hollowed out coconut. He has nothing left to prove; if he wants another fight it should be at lightweight, not welterweight, he’s too small. Penn/MacDonald goes down September 22nd in Toronto. It is unclear where the bout will be placed among the main card.  

Dan Hardy Doesn't Want Matt Riddle

If you missed the UFC149 Post Fight Press Conference you need to stop what you are doing and go youtube it because Matt Riddle stole the show when he recounted a story of a “butter-toothed Brit spitting on his mouth,” which has started this fire inside him that can only be extinguished by beating in Dan Hardy’s face. I was drinking during the press conference but I think that’s the gist of it. Anyway, Dan Hardy took to twitter the following morning tweeting: “Why would I fight Riddle, what’s in it for me?” or something to that effect. What’s in a Matt Riddle fight for Dan Hardy? About the same thing that’s in an Amir Sadollah fight for Dan Hardy. I like Hardy, but he is 1-4 his last 5 times out so he should be happy he is still relevant (sorta) and being offered fights in the UFC.

Frank Mir Edits His Own Wikipedia Page

This is according to Wikipedia, so I assume it is 100% accurate, never mind that anyone can alter the information. I once got into an argument with my girlfriend and altered Wikipedia without her knowledge in order to prove my point. One has to wonder why I am cruising Mir’s Wikipedia page to begin with, and to that I really have no answer other then I was trying to find some shred of information about the mass quantities of hair gel this man applies on a daily basis. Anyway, here’s what it says:

“Mir says that he lost to Carwin because he momentarily forgot that he is a slick fighter that uses skills rather than raw power. Although many in the MMA community are confused by this explanation, Mir continues to edit his own Wikipedia page.”

Click HERE to check it out for yourself, unless Frank has changed it by now.