Check out Cagewriter’s exclusive photo gallery with pictures taken by Tracy Lee at UFC 117. Look out for Anderson Silva’s triangle choke, Junior Dos Santos’ punishing strikes to Roy Nelson’s belly, and Clay Guida showing what a fighter is supposed to look like after a win.
Thiago Alves will fight Jon Fitch this Saturday, and the winner will likely get the next shot at the UFC welterweight belt. For someone who has been as successful as Alves, he has faced many peaks and valleys.Valley: Alves started his UFC career off with a bang but not a good one for him. At Ultimate Fight Night 2 in October 2005, Alves lost to Spencer Fisher by rear-naked choke. It wasn’t a memorable debut. Peak: After beating Ansar Chalangov by TKO at UFC 56, Alves won again at UFC 59. He beat Derrick Noble by the same method at UFC 59. Both fights were first-round stoppage.Valley: The Alves train was derailed at Ultimate Fight Night 5. Fitch, his opponent for this weekend, TKO’d Alves in the second round. Peak: Alves rebounded from the Fitch loss with a decision win over John Alessio and then a punishing knee KO of Tony DeSouza at UFC 66.Valley: Whoops! Alves tested positive for a banned diuretic at UFC 66. He was suspended eight months and fined $5,500. Peak: Alves returned to the cage in September 2007 and started off with TKOs of Kuniyoshi Hironaka and Chris Lytle. That led to a Ultimate Fight Night matchup with Karo Parisyan, where Alves overwhelmed his opponent at the beginning of the second round, winning by TKO.Peak with a touch of valley thrown in: Those wins earned Alves a shot at Matt Hughes, the former welterweight champ. Before their bout at UFC 85 in England, Alves couldn’t make weight. The two fought at a catchweight of 174 pounds, and Alves won Knockout of the Night after taking Hughes out with a flying knee on June 7, 2008.Valley: A win over Josh Koscheck at UFC 90 earned Alves a shot at GSP and the welterweight title at UFC 100 during the summer of 2009. That didn’t go so well. GSP outwrestled and overwhelmed Alves, controlling him throughout the match.Valley: Days before he was set to rematch Jon Fitch at UFC 111 in March of this year, Alves was not cleared to fight by New Jersey officials. He found out he had a small brain issue that had to be corrected with surgery.So here we are, days before Alves and Fitch are finally set to fight at UFC 117. What do you think this weekend will be for Alves? A peak, like when he TKO’d so many fighters, or a valley, like when he last lost to Fitch?
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The fight game is tough. Sometimes winning isn’t enough. In some circles, Jon Fitch has already taken his beating over the way he defeated Thiago Alves at UFC 117. Junior Dos Santos earned his shot at the UFC title with his victory over Roy Nelson but now he has some viewers questioning his power. JDS is now part of the growing debate over whether guys in the range of 240 pounds or smaller can thrive against the heavyweights who push the 265 limit. Dos Santos beat the snot out of Nelson but couldn’t put him down. Do we give Nelson credit for having sick ability to take a beating or is Dos Santos short on power? If he can’t take out Nelson what happens when he faces someone like Brock Lesnar or Shane Carwin? On the positive side, Dos Santos’ stamina was very good. Most heavyweights who throw that many shots eventually get weary. Dos Santos outlanded Nelson
Dos Santos dominated the entire fight, outlanding Nelson 130 to 38, with 78 of those shots being power punches. According to Compustrike, he also attempted 245 punches. That’s impressive when lined up against the punch output of most heavyweight boxers. On the downside, Dos Santos was one-dimensional. He only attempted 14 kicks against a very stationary target.Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole checks in with his take on JDS’ chances against Lesnar, if the champ defends his title at UFC 123.
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Eastbound and Down isn’t for everybody but if you’re not a hypersensitive politically correct troll, it’s damn funny. Kenny Powers is classic in this super NSFW pitch to K-Swiss. One of his schemes is to wear his kicks as an MMA fighter against the former WEC champ Urijah Faber. We’re not so sure this video will air on ESPN, Comedy Central and MTV outlets, but the campaign is real. K-Swiss has brought the character on board to push it’s "Tubes" line. The mulleted phys-ed teacher will be featured along with Faber, San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis and New Orleans Saints’ TE Jeremy Shockey.Glenn Cole, from the ad agency 72andSunny says: "When you have four of the most intense pro athletes in the world–and that’s including Kenny Powers–you can tell a story about performance technology in a way that young guys care about." David Nichols, executive VP of K-Swiss explains the Powers’ approach: "We wanted to deliver unfiltered straight talk about how awesome TUBES are. Who better to do that than Kenny Powers? This approach is attention grabbing – progressive, creative and playful, which is our marketing mantra." There’s even a Kenny Powers/K-Swiss Facebook app! Tip via Cage Potato
by Michael David SmithAging always feels like a difficult subject to broach: We all know we’re getting older, but it feels rude to point it out about anyone else. But you can’t follow sports and not be acutely aware of how athletes change as they age, and on Saturday night at UFC 117, we were reminded of a simple fact that it had so far been easy to overlook: Anderson Silva is getting old.
Although he managed to pull out a submission victory in the fifth round of his fight with Chael Sonnen, Saturday night’s fight was by far the worst of Silva’s UFC career. When an athlete Silva’s age offers up a sub-par performance, it’s hard not to conclude that age was a factor. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Thiago Alves can never separate himself from the weigh-in drama storyline. The stocky Brazilian is massive for the 170-pound class and it’s always an adventure in the days leading up the weigh-in. This week was no different. Alves was reportedly 190 pounds on Wednesday morning. Today, sounded bright with reports that he was 177 in the morning. But it didn’t work out, even with two weigh-in attempts. Alves missed the mark, had to forfeit 20 percent of his purse and may have cost himself the title shot promised to the winner of his fight against Jon Fitch. With the threat of Alves missing weight, it sounded like White had changed his mind overnight telling Fanhouse (7:10 mark) that Fitch, Alves, Jake Shields or Martin Kampmann could be in line for the title shot after Georges St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck fight. Alves couldn’t have donehimself any favors by missing weight again! The energy was high as the main event combatants hit the scale. Chael Sonnen was all business while Anderson Silva had fun on the scale acting as if he was nervous that he was going to miss weight. Silva flipped the script during the staredown by refusing to look at Sonnen. The challenger has done a helluva job hyping the fight but it sounded like he made plenty of enemies amongst the fans. UFC 117 weigh-in (Courtesy MMAJunkie):Pay-Per-View card:
Champ Anderson Silva (184.5) v. Chael Sonnen (185)Thiago Alves (171.5) v. Jon Fitch (170.5)Ricardo Almeida (170.5) v. Matt Hughes (170.5)Junior Dos Santos (240) v. Roy Nelson (263)Rafael dos Anjos (156) v. Clay Guida (156)Non-televised card:
Dustin Hazelett (169.5) v. Rick Story (169.5)Phil Davis (205.5) v. Rodney Wallace (206)Charlie Brenneman (171) v. Johny Hendricks (171)Tim Boetsch (206) v. Todd Brown (206)Christian Morecraft (263) v. Stefan Struve (247)Dennis Hallman (171) v. Ben Saunders (171)
by Michael David SmithUFC President Dana White and main event fighters Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen will meet the media for the final time on Thursday at the UFC 117 pre-fight press conference video, and you can watch it live right here at MMAFighting.com.
This press conference should be particularly interesting, as Sonnen has spent several months needling Silva and will now finally get a chance to say something to Silva’s face. For his part, Silva has mostly ignored Sonnen’s trash talk, but we’ll see if he has anything to say when he meets Sonnen face-to-face.
The press conference begins at 4PM ET and the video is below. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
After weeks without a UFC event, the promotion started off a jam-packed August with an event on Versus that featured a highlight reel KO, a quick submission and a phenom showing he’s ready to jump to the next level. No. 1 star — Jon Jones: This light heavyweight has been on an upward trajectory since debuting with the UFC the summer of 2008. Save for one disqualification, he’s won every fight impressively, and Sunday evening’s quick crucifix TKO over veteran fighter Vladimir Matyushenko was no different. What’s next for Jones? He wants a serious step up in competition, "someone who is supposedly much better than me."No. 2 star — Takanori Gomi: The "Fireball Kid" was a PRIDE champion and known for throwing big punches. However, when he made his UFC debut in March against Kenny Florian, we didn’t see his heavy hands. We saw him get submitted. This time, Gomi threw a hook that knocked out Tyson Griffin, the first time Griffin has ever been knocked out. That earned Gomi a $40,000 Knockout of the Night bonus.No. 3 star — Charles Oliveira: Want to know how to make a memorable UFC debut? Try winning with an armbar in less than a minute the first time you step foot in the Octagon, then follow it up with a speech telling the crowd, "HELLO SAN DIEGO! THANK YOU SAN DIEGO! NO SPEAK ENGLISH! THANK YOU!" Finally, walk away with the $40,000 Submission of the Night bonus. Who are your stars from the UFC on Versus 2?
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For some reason in mixed martial arts, immediate rematches are usually frowned upon. The younger demographic likes new blood in the cage, especially when it comes to title fights. So when will we see Chael Sonnen get another shot at Anderson Silva? Sonnen was leading 4-0 (40-35, 40-34, 40-36) and on his way to winning the fifth round when he got caught in a triangle choke. The prefight hype was amongst the best in UFC history and the fight was dynamite. Sonnen’s willingness to put himself on the line with what seemed like outrageous guarantees, will likely pay dividends in the form of pay-per-view buys that could be in excess of 750,000. The second fight will be even bigger. So can the UFC afford to slip in another contender before Sonnen and Silva meet? And isn’t it incredibly risky to make Sonnen fight someone else in the interim? Yahoo! Sports’ MMA expert Kevin Iole thinks there’s only one choice for the UFC and we could be waiting a while before we see the rematch.Update: Silva’s manager Ed Soares sounds like he’s already lining up against giving Sonnen an immediate shot. Soares told FightHype: "I mean, I don’t necessarily think an immediate rematch is legitimate. It’s not like he won by decision. You got submitted man. You were on top of him for 23 minutes of the fight and couldn’t finish him. Anderson got a few bumps and bruises, but let’s be realistic, you’re on a guy 23 minutes and you couldn’t finish him? Why should he get a rematch?" As expected, initial reaction to this post was all over the map on Twitter @stevecofield.
Nike is doing a demo in NYC next Tuesday, August 17th at Rucker Park with Paul Rodriguez, Eric Koston, Shane O’Neil, Theotis Beasley, Daniel Labron, Ishod Wiar, and Youness Amrani. Check the flyer for the full details. Keep an eye on Quartersnacks for some pre-demo bloggage from the team as they skate NYC.
Do yourself a favor and see the Chuck Close exhibit at the Virginia Fine Arts Museum in Richmond if you get a chance. I just got back and was blown away.
Mike Tyson has done some classic interviews but last week he topped himself on ESPNRadio1100 in Las Vegas. Tyson, fresh off a visit to the dentist, was all over the place. He even touched on his love of MMA. He said his favorite fighter is Fedor Emelianenko. He also has his eye on UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar. "Brock Lesnar is a very exciting fighter," said Tyson. "Now you have to count that he has a great deal of intestinal fortitude from what happened from the last fight. So you can never count him out now. Cause now you know his pain threshhold is off the roof now. He’s big. He’s powerful. He’s fast and he can handle pain as well as he can dish it."Tyson also said James Toney’s first MMA fight could be "detrimental to him."The best part of the interview comes when Tyson expresses his admiration for Mel Gibson. It’s complete with Gibson phone call audio. Tyson loses it. He’s also quizzed at the end of the interview and drops a great line about being smarter than a fifth grader.
Since an old friend told me about his climbing trips to Thailand it’s been one of my boxes-to-tick. Climbing by the beach and then relaxing in the blue seas sounds too good to be true. I’m about to find out – I’ve decided to do it later this year…
Photo kindly shared by HalonaCoast on Flickr
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He’s fighting the best mixed martial artist in the world in just over two days, does Chael Sonnen really need to deal with drama unfolding about his Lance Armstrong comments? Of course not, and now he’s only making it worse by engaging in some sort of game/elaborate hoax. We pointed Wednesday night that Sonnen told Fanhouse he never made the comments and never spoke with the interviewer Larry Pepe. Thursday, Jim Rome picked up on the story and booked Sonnen for an interview. After a lengthy discussion about the fight against Anderson Silva, Rome then pressed Sonnen on his Armstrong comments. Sonnen again stated that he didn’t make the comments and that it wasn’t him on the show. Sonnen said he also got a call from Armstrong. "He said ‘I heard your interview, what are you saying about me?’ He broke the story for me. And I didn’t even think it was him. I’ve talked to him on the phone a couple of times," said Sonnen. "He blindsided me. I assure you, Jim, you will not find any footage of any such interview." Then Rome played the audio and Sonnen denied it again. Watch Kalib Run has a nice recap of the aftermath as Rome mocked Sonnen and spun it into the topic of "worst lies ever." Rome states that it’s incredulous that he would deny that it was him. Rome states that if it was an impersonator, they spent 45 minutes doing an interview posing as Sonnen. Rome wonders what Dana White thinks of this "fight hype" as it’s gone over the line and Dana is a "no BS guy". Because he likes Sonnen and the middleweight has saved the promotion for UFC 117, we’re guessing White won’t rip into the fighter but he did come off as foolish on national radio. Some MMA bloggers are saying we’re playing right into Sonnen’s hand. He’s turning the tables on the media. Josh Gross thinks it’s gone beyond that. It’s not anything that damages the reputation of the sport, but it certainly knocks Sonnen down a peg. That said, maybe this final bit of controversy will bring in more pay-per-view buys which was the ultimate goal of the barrage of trash talk in the first place.
Plenty of gnarly stuff going on in the new Denver Shop trailer.
BREAKING NEWS! the Double Rainbow viral video phenom has a legit skateboard connection.
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Gravis just finished their new short film directed by Greg Hunt featuring Dylan Rieder. Good news for all you Mag readers because the DVD will be included in issue 79. Head over to Gravis Skateboarding for the teaser and all things Dylan.
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by Michael David SmithAfter Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen meet in the UFC 117 main event on Saturday, the action isn’t over. Head back here following the fights to watch the UFC 117 post-fight press conference.
UFC President Dana White and select UFC 117 fighters will meet the press and answer questions about what happened inside the Octagon and the winners of the Fight of the Night, Knockout of the Night and Submission of the Night awards will be revealed.
The press conference will start about half an hour after the main event ends, around 1:30AM ET, and the video is below. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Matt Hughes choked Ricardo Almeida out cold at UFC 117 with a classic wrestling move, the front headlock. After the bout, Hughes said that it’s a move that Almeida probably hasn’t seen before. That is likely true, but wrestling fans everywhere recognized the move. The front headlock was perfected by Dave Schultz, one of wrestling’s most dominant athletes and an Olympic gold medalist in 1984. During the Los Angeles Games, Schultz’s headlock was so hazardous that referees were warning him as soon as he sunk his arms in on an opponent. Skip to the 2:45 mark here to see Schultz’s perfect headlock in the first period of the gold-medal match.Schultz couldn’t use his headlock to end a match like Hughes did, but he did use it to score points, fend off a takedown and control his opponent. Along with his brother Mark, Schultz was known as one of the more brutal wrestlers of his era. Though Mark defeated Gary Goodridge at UFC 9 in his one MMA bout, Dave never had the chance to transition to MMA. He was murdered in 1996. Hughes’ headlock win was a fitting tribute to a member of the wrestling family who was taken too soon.
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Mark Frolich helps out with Alex Fiedler’s welcome video for Jart.
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Roy Nelson is prepping for the biggest opportunity of his career this weekend against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 117. The winner will get a title shot against the winner between UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez. Nelson wasn’t too impressed with Lesnar and even less impressed by the way Shane Carwin lost their fight at UFC 116. Nelson thinks Carwin outright quit.
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No one’s going to question Jessica Aguilar’s toughness. Well, except when it comes to facing her mother and telling her what she does for a living. That’s right Aguilar (on the right), who’ll be featured tonight on nationwide television during Bellator 24, still hasn’t told her mother that she brawls in a cage. "My mom is very old-fashioned, so I don’t think she’d like it too much," Aguilar
told the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. "I’m just living my dream right now and enjoying it and nobody’s going to
take that from me. There will be a time when she needs to find out, but right
now it’s the way it is and I’m just living my dream."Aguilar’s mother must be a strong-willed, aggressive woman because it sounds like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The 28-year-old MMA fighter was on the outside looking in when Bellator was first putting together an eight-woman tournament at 115 pounds. Aguilar wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to fight some of the world’s best and potentially appear multiple times on Fox Sports Net."I guess you could say I did call them out," said Aguilar. She fights out of American Top Team in South Florida so made sure her presence was noticed during Bellator 21 at the Hard Rock in Hollywood. She went to the weigh-in hoping to speak with Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney and then sought him out again on fight night. "It’s not going to come get you, you have to go get it," Aguilar said. "If
you want it, go for it. I wanted to be in the tournament and I had to do what I
had to do to go get it."Aguilar (8-3) faces Lynn Alvarez (5-1). The biggest female draw on the card is no doubt Megumi Fujii. She’s a familiar name with hardcores who some will argue that she’s the best female fighter on the planet, not Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos. Don’t blink the Fujii fight could be over quickly. She facing a last second fill-in with just three pro fights under her belt. Rebney is excited knowing he may have a future star in the underpromoted Fujii (20-0)."I’m not much for a lot of hyperbole," said
Rebney, "but I think there’s a good argument that can be made that the woman who
wins this tournament, whether it’s Jessica Aguilar or Fujii or whoever it is,
can call herself the best pound-for-pound woman on earth." There are several male fights on the televised card as well. Hector Lombard (26-2-1), ranked No. 21 at middleweight in the USA Today/Bloody Elbow poll battles Herbert Goodman (15-8-1). Goodman, a former Green Bay Packer running back, fell short of gaining a spot on Season 10 of "The Ultimate Fighter". Bellator also begins its heavyweight tourney with UFC and Cage Rage veteran Neil Grove (8-2, 0-1 UFC) taking on a fellow UFC-vet in Eddie Sanchez (12-3, 3-3 UFC). Bellator 24 weigh-in (Courtesy MMA Mania):Televised (Fox Sports Net 8 p.m. ET) Hector Lombard (185.5 lbs.) v. Herbert Goodman (183.5
lbs.)Eddie Sanchez (244.5 lbs.) v. Neil Grove (265 lbs.)Megumi Fujii (115.5 lbs.) v. Carla Esparza (115.25 lbs.)Jessica Aguilar (113.5 lbs.) v. Lynn Alvarez (114.5 lbs.)
Non-televised
Yves Edwards (154.5 lbs.) v. Luis Palomino (154.5 lbs.)Eric Luke (154.5 lbs.) v. Farkhard Sharipov (144 lbs.)Brian Eckstein (182 135 lbs.) v. Tulio Quintanilla (135.5 lbs.)
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In terms of star power or the outcome of some of the televised fights, it wasn’t the best card ever, but UFC on Versus 2 was a huge winner when it came to exposure for the sport. The Sunday night primetime spot proved beneficial with little to compete against in the sports world. Versus went all in with its coverage, especially the postfight show. The network went back to San Diego for live spots with the winners, UFC analyst Joe Rogan and UFC president Dana White. Former WEC color voice Frank Mir even served as the studio analyst back in New York.The UFC pulled off a coup Monday morning with a Jon Jones appearance on ESPN’s "SportsCenter." The very informed and excited Josh Elliott anchored the interview. That’s a solid spot considering Jones was a minus-650 favorite and dispatched of Vladimir Matyushenko very easily, with few explosive highlights. Does Jones even qualify as one of the top-10 names in MMA? Didn’t the Juan Manuel Marquez (top-5 boxer by most accounts) win stand as a bigger story in the fight world? Yet ESPN chose to go with MMA. Elliott did miss the mark on one potential hot button issue. Jones is pretty clichéd with his answers but some recent James Toney trash-talk got him talking (3:45 mark of Versus video)."Now I actually have a heavyweight I wouldn’t mind fighting. That’s James Toney," Jones said when talking about getting his weight up to 231 pounds between fights. "’Mr. I’m going to slap Jon in his face.’ I’d bump up for that fight any day." It was a good weekend for MMA. Still makes you wonder why newspapers are so hesitant to cover the sport. We mentioned on Friday that the San Diego Union-Tribune seemed uneasy about covering the event. The paper did have an advance story on Saturday, but we didn’t see anything on the day of the event. Monday, freelancer Matt Youmans of the Las Vegas Review-Journal has the fight-night story for the paper.
He’s fighting the best mixed martial artist in the world in just over two days, does Chael Sonnen really need to deal with drama unfolding about his Lance Armstrong comments? Of course not, and now he’s only making it worse by engaging in some sort of game/elaborate hoax. We pointed Wednesday night that Sonnen told Fanhouse he never made the comments and never spoke with the interviewer Larry Pepe. Thursday, Jim Rome picked up on the story and booked Sonnen for an interview. After a lengthy discussion about the fight against Anderson Silva, Rome then pressed Sonnen on his Armstrong comments. Sonnen again stated that he didn’t make the comments and that it wasn’t him on the show. Sonnen said he also got a call from Armstrong. "He said ‘I heard your interview, what are you saying about me?’ He broke the story for me. And I didn’t even think it was him. I’ve talked to him on the phone a couple of times," said Sonnen. "He blindsided me. I assure you, Jim, you will not find any footage of any such interview." Then Rome played the audio and Sonnen denied it again. Watch Kalib Run has a nice recap of the aftermath as Rome mocked Sonnen and spun it into the topic of "worst lies ever." Rome states that it’s incredulous that he would deny that it was him. Rome states that if it was an impersonator, they spent 45 minutes doing an interview posing as Sonnen. Rome wonders what Dana White thinks of this "fight hype" as it’s gone over the line and Dana is a "no BS guy". Because he likes Sonnen and the middleweight has saved the promotion for UFC 117, we’re guessing White won’t rip into the fighter but he did come off as foolish on national radio. Some MMA bloggers are saying we’re playing right into Sonnen’s hand. He’s turning the tables on the media. Josh Gross thinks it’s gone beyond that. It’s not anything that damages the reputation of the sport, but it certainly knocks Sonnen down a peg. That said, maybe this final bit of controversy will bring in more pay-per-view buys which was the ultimate goal of the barrage of trash talk in the first place.
Since an old friend told me about his climbing trips to Thailand it’s been one of my boxes-to-tick. Climbing by the beach and then relaxing in the blue seas sounds too good to be true. I’m about to find out – I’ve decided to do it later this year…
Photo kindly shared by HalonaCoast on Flickr
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The first UFC pay-per-view event in more than a month had no shortage of impressive performances. No. 1 star — Anderson Silva: If you needed any reminder why MMA is an amazing sport, Silva gave it to you. A football team is unlikely to come back and win when down four touchdowns at the two-minute warning. Ditto a basketball team down 40 points, or a baseball team down 12 runs. But in MMA, the judges’ score cards can be rendered moot with a single triangle choke.Silva showed not only the greatness of MMA but the nature of a champion. He withstood a Chael Sonnen beating for 4 1/2 rounds but was still able to come back and win. Quite simply, he figured out a way to win. That’s a quality found in the greatest champions, regardless of sport.No. 2 star — Chael Sonnen: Obviously, the man who delivered the beating for most of the main event deserves kudos, as well. Sonnen used wrestling and ground and pound to relentlessly pummel Silva. Sonnen made Silva look human, a feat that few other fighters have been able to accomplish.No. 3 star — Stefan Struve: On a jam-packed card, it was hard to pick out the final star, but Struve showed his mettle with a second-round KO of Christian Morecraft. Struve was battered and beaten from the first round. With a mangled lip and a bloody face, Struve came back to deliver two punishing strikes to take Morecraft out. Honorable mention — Wrestling: Yes, the world’s oldest and greatest sport had a starring role at UFC 117. Matt Hughes used an old-school wrestling technique to beat Ricardo Almeida. Jon Fitch used wrestling to take down Thiago Alves again and again. Phil Davis, Clay Guida and even Sonnen used wrestling to get the job done — almost done in the case of Sonnen. Dishonorable mention — Thiago Alves: First, he blew weight. Then, he was dominated by Jon Fitch in a unanimous-decision loss. Alves looked sluggish and tired, only managing a few fits of offense near the end of the second and third rounds. Who are your stars from UFC 117?
UFC veteran Danillo Villefort made the mistake of letting his teammates at American Top Team know that it was his birthday. Watch the first 45 seconds to see how they celebrate a birthday at ATT. Flour and eggs are key ingredients to making a cake, so perhaps that was the intent of the ATT fighters when they threw it at Villefort. You’ll see more ATT camaraderie on display Saturday night at UFC 117 as one of their marquee fighters, Thiago Alves, fights Jon Fitch.
by Michael David SmithJake Ellenberger used a hard elbow to turn John Howard’s eye into a swollen mess in their UFC on Versus fight Sunday night, leaving Howard unable to see and leaving the ringside doctor no choice but to call the fight to a stop in the third round, giving Ellenberger a TKO victory.
“That’s what I expected,” Ellenberger said afterward. “He rocked me a few times but I got some good elbows on him.” Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
For some reason in mixed martial arts, immediate rematches are usually frowned upon. The younger demographic likes new blood in the cage, especially when it comes to title fights. So when will we see Chael Sonnen get another shot at Anderson Silva? Sonnen was leading 4-0 (40-35, 40-34, 40-36) and on his way to winning the fifth round when he got caught in a triangle choke. The prefight hype was amongst the best in UFC history and the fight was dynamite. Sonnen’s willingness to put himself on the line with what seemed like outrageous guarantees, will likely pay dividends in the form of pay-per-view buys that could be in excess of 750,000. The second fight will be even bigger. So can the UFC afford to slip in another contender before Sonnen and Silva meet? And isn’t it incredibly risky to make Sonnen fight someone else in the interim? Yahoo! Sports’ MMA expert Kevin Iole thinks there’s only one choice for the UFC and we could be waiting a while before we see the rematch.Update: Silva’s manager Ed Soares sounds like he’s already lining up against giving Sonnen an immediate shot. Soares told FightHype: "I mean, I don’t necessarily think an immediate rematch is legitimate. It’s not like he won by decision. You got submitted man. You were on top of him for 23 minutes of the fight and couldn’t finish him. Anderson got a few bumps and bruises, but let’s be realistic, you’re on a guy 23 minutes and you couldn’t finish him? Why should he get a rematch?" As expected, initial reaction to this post was all over the map on Twitter @stevecofield.
Small Wheels has Austyn Gillette’s footage from the Maloof Cup. DC has their AMs at Maloof too. Jimmy Carlin does commentary for Tom Asta’s Color Theory commercial. Monday with Mike V part 17. Independent has video of their guys at Coastal Carnage.
I’ve been at the Maloof Money Cup in Costa Mesa, Ca all weekend. The contest was one of the best I’ve been too, the level of skating now a days is incredible. I feel like Nyjah should have won with his flawless hammertime heat…he landed every single trick he tried! But with the points Chris Cole stacked on every obstacle, he was unbeatable. Great contest, enjoy the pictures.
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You all asked for it, actually more like screamed and cried for it, so we listened. That’s right, you can now watch our WATCH videos in quicktime on your iPhone, mobile device, or whatever magic viewing box likes to watch quicktime vids! Just click the quicktime version up top, then make fun of your friend still using that Razr.
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CCS catches up with Silas Baxter-Neal. Markisa has check out videos with Boo Johnson and Jordan Trahan. Andrew Reynolds talks Stay Gold with Active. Picture Wheels has a quick Cale Nuske video.
by Michael David SmithA welterweight bout between Dan Hornbuckle and Brad Blackburn has been added to the August 19 Bellator 25 card in Chicago, which is shaping up as a very strong night of fights for the second show of the upstart promotion’s third season.
Hornbuckle was generally recognized as the favorite to win Bellator’s Season 2 welterweight tournament, but he was upset in the final against Ben Askren. He’ll fight for the first time since that loss when he takes on Blackburn, a UFC veteran with a 3-2 record inside the Octagon and a 15-11 record overall. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsWhitewater
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by Michael David SmithAll the fighters participating in UFC 117 will step on the scale Friday at the Oracle Arena in Oakland for the UFC 117 weigh-in, and if you can’t be there to watch it in person, you can watch it here at MMAFighting.com.
In the main event UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and challenger Chael Sonnen will both need to make the middleweight limit of 185 pounds.
The weigh-in starts Friday at 7PM ET and the video is below. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsMotorsports
Motocross
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The rap on Japanese fighters is that they do well in hometown promotions like DREAM and Sengoku, but when forced to fight in a cage in the U.S., they buckle. A Japanese fighter has never held a title belt from the UFC or WEC. Before his Strikeforce title bout with Gilbert Melendez, lightweight Shinya Aoki said that if he lost, MMA in Japan would be over. Well, he lost.Someone didn’t tell that to Yushin Okami and Takanori Gomi. Both fighters won handily at UFC on Versus 2. Though Gomi said that he "learned to fight American," he won by returning to his bread and butter striking. Okami did it with textbook takedown defense. His sprawl — laces down with flexible hips — was good enough to stop an elite collegiate wrestler in Mark Munoz. Now, Okami may get the shot to be the first Japanese fighter to win a UFC championship. UFC president Dana White said last week that a win might put Okami in line for a shot at the middleweight belt. From MMAjunkie.com: "Winning this fight would be big," White said. "I say it all the time, you know, Yushin Okami is one of the best 185-pounders in the world and has been for a while. This guy’s due for a title shot."Apparently, Japanese MMA is far from over. It looks as if it’s just getting warmed up. Kitesurfing
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Sunday night presents the next step for light heavyweight dynamo Jon Jones. He’s a huge favorite over veteran Vladimir Matyushenko. He’s hearing how great he is from all corners. He’s working with the famed Jackson’s Submission Fighting Camp against some of the best in the world. Can Jones keep his head on straight? We find out at UFC on Versus 2. UFC on Versus 2 betting odds (Courtesy Venetian and Lagasse Stadium) Official picks in bold Vladimir Matyushenko (+500) vs. Jon Jones (-800) – Light heavyweightMark Munoz (+170) vs. Yushin Okami (-200) – MiddleweightJohn Howard (+140) vs. Jake Ellenberger (-170) – WelterweightTakanori Gomi (+240) vs. Tyson Griffin (-320) – LightweightJacob Volkmann (+115) vs. Paul Kelly (-145) – LightweightDaMarques Johnson (+160) vs. Matthew Riddle (-190) – WelterweightIgor Pokrajac (+110) vs. James Irvin (-140) – Light heavyweightBrian Stann (+130) vs. Mike Massenzio (-160) – MiddleweightDarren Elkins (+170) vs. Charles Oliveira (-200) – LightweightSteve Steinbeiss (+180) vs. Rob Kimmons (-220) – MiddleweightBrianDeegan
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Dogway is streaming Feel Eina or if you prefer, you can download it here.Whitewater
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If you thought Sarah Kaufman’s win over Roxanne Modafferi was a great brawl, you should follow the throwdown over female MMA going down between several MMA blogs. One side thinks female MMA is unathletic, stinks and doesn’t belong in a prime spot on television. The other is irked by the lack of respect. The Kaufman flap began when she blogged that she was unhappy with her placement on Strikeforce Challengers 9. Kaufman (12-0) delivered a nice finishing slam to end things against Modafferi, but MMA Payout says the slam only backs its argument that female fighting is where it belongs. If anything, the slam is further support for the idea that women lack much of the speed, strength, and damage threshold that make MMA so dynamic and exciting. The Kaufman slam pales in comparison to Rampage-Arona (or even Harris-Branch), which perfectly summarizes the difference between the two sports and why women’s MMA has such a tough row to hoe.The slam has become a lightning rod for backers of female MMA and Kaufman. Fightlinker dished out its own slam calling MMA Payout’s analysis "asinine" and that it didn’t belong on a site analyzing the business side of MMA. Fight Opinion wasn’t happy with the prefight criticism Kaufman got for complaining about exposure: She stated her demand to fight on Strikeforce main cards. Who came blame her? The fans didn’t. Apparently the media, however, in large part is not happy with her attitude. Memo to those criticizing her with largely manufactured outrage — who else is going to promote her if the promotion she works for isn’t doing a good enough job promoting her or themselves?FO says men do it all the time, so why can’t Kaufman? Let’s call it for what it is — Sarah did something that other fighters in the promotion have done (promoted themselves) and yet she gets heat for it while everyone else who goes into business for themselves in Strikeforce gets a shrug of the shoulders from beat writers. She doesn’t have a contract like Dan Henderson and making a living at a business that requires 100% devotion means you have to scratch and claw to get every dollar you can make. Whether that’s through sponsorships, commercials, fight salary, or whatever the revenue vehicle may be, she’s got to make a living.Zach at FO thinks several bloggers ripped Kaufman because it made for a nice story during a slow news week. So why the heat against Sarah by writers, which is a completely different reaction to the supportive response from fans? It’s a melting pot of reasons. First, it’s a dry news cycle. Writers are looking for material. Second, she’s a woman and there’s plenty of vocal fans who are not on the female MMA bandwagon.If you read Cagewriter on a regular basis, for me the jury is still out on female MMA. I thought the Gina Carano-Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos fight was as good as any I’d seen during 2009. But that type of female fight is too often outnumbered by unathletic-looking clinchfests. Fight Opinion is right, ultimately it’s up to you guys. If you tune in on a regular basis, producing large viewership numbers, and female MMA helps to fill up arenas around the country, it’s got a future. It’s certainly a much better product than female boxing but so is the WNBA and for some reason men have consistently snubbed it. Kitesurfing
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When I moved into my new home, I spent a little time on reconnaissance for somewhere to train for climbing.
I initially thought a fingerboard would be the way to go. However, all the doorways were flimsy stud walls and not sturdy enough.
An alternative jumped out – Rock Rings by Metolius. If only I could find [...]BrianPatch
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Matt Hughes choked Ricardo Almeida out cold at UFC 117 with a classic wrestling move, the front headlock. After the bout, Hughes said that it’s a move that Almeida probably hasn’t seen before. That is likely true, but wrestling fans everywhere recognized the move. The front headlock was perfected by Dave Schultz, one of wrestling’s most dominant athletes and an Olympic gold medalist in 1984. During the Los Angeles Games, Schultz’s headlock was so hazardous that referees were warning him as soon as he sunk his arms in on an opponent. Skip to the 2:45 mark here to see Schultz’s perfect headlock in the first period of the gold medal match.Schultz couldn’t use his headlock to end a match like Hughes did, but he did use it to score points, fend off a takedown and control his opponent. Along with his brother Mark, Schultz was known as one of the more brutal wrestlers of his era. Though Mark defeated Gary Goodridge at UFC 9 in his one MMA bout, Dave never had the chance to transition to MMA. He was murdered in 1996. Hughes’ headlock win was a fitting tribute to a member of the wrestling family who was taken too soon. DamienHobgood
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NFL insider/MMA trainer Jay Glazer was the fill-in host on the nationally syndicated Dan Patrick Show on Friday morning. Give him credit, he mixed in several segments of MMA discussion during the three-hour show. The day’s poll question was "Which NFL player would make the best MMA fighter?"The candidates were Jared Allen, Ray Lewis, Shawne Merriman and Stephen Neal. If hardcore fans were voting, the results may have had Neal winning with 99 percent while the other three split the remaining 1 percent. After all, Neal was the NCAA heavyweight wrestling champ back in 1999. He won the title by downing current UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar.Neal actually finished last in the poll with just 6 percent of the vote. Ray Lewis smashed the field with 45 percent. Glazer said several times that Lewis has an amateur boxing and wrestling background. Are you buying that he’d have a chance against someone with Neal’s pedigree? Mountainboarding
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All over the San Diego area, the UFC is pushing ticket sales hard for Sunday’s UFC on Versus 2 card. Fighters made multiple appearances on Fox 5 San Diego this week, including main-event fighter Vladimir Matyushenko along with Antoni Hardonk. Weather hottie Chrissy Russo did a long Q&A with the fellas and then starting throwing punches herself.She was pretty spunky the next day, shadow boxing in the studio. So it’s clear some media members are fired up for the fight card. And the event needs the help. Remember, this card was moved from Salt Lake to San Diego because of lackluster ticket sales. It’d be a nice showing to get 8,000-9,000 paid in the rather spacious San Diego Sports Arena.Update: Russo will grow you especially if you watch the video where she talks about wearing skimpy bikinis and her buns smelling like cinnamon. Bad news for the UFC and MMA comes with the observation that the local paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune has been lukewarm about covering the event. In fact, it sounds like both local columnists, Nick Canepa and Tim Sullivan, may be skipping fight night. The Union-Tribune isn’t sending any other staffer to cover the card either. A freelancer from outside the market will provide the recap for readers on Monday. Update II: UFC P.R. convinced the local paper to write some advance stories. Today, the San Diego Union-Tribune has a good story on Jon Jones and his rise to potential MMA superstar. It sounds like the fight night coverage may a case of the staffer, Marc Zeigler, not being comfortable with his knowledge of the sport, so the paper is using Matt Youmans, a writer from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Zeigler will be attending the event as well. In the end, it all works out for the MMA fan and non-fan. They all get to read about the event. This is a battle the promotion faces in most cities. It’s good to see MMA comes out the winner here. BMX
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No skate clip today, but the Mostly Skateboarding twitter feed is always going off and I started a tumblr blog last week with skate and non-skate stuff I think looks cool.Riversurfing
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Check the latest montage from the Hard Times crew out east.kayaking
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A quick blast of footage featuring Gilbert Crockett, Chima Ferguson, Geoff Rowley, Chris Pfanner, and Andrew Langi skating practice at Maloof is posted over at Vans. The course is on point, so along with vert and a mini-mega there will surely be lots going down in the coming days…
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Location: Stanage Plantation
Date: Sunday 27 July
Sunday shone this weekend. A planned trip to the gym was quickly canned and instead we made a trip out to a new bouldering spot. After a recommendation that Stanage plantation had some good climbing (thanks Jonny!) we checked my bouldering guide book and set out.
If you’re reading this wondering [...]Mountainbiking
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TUF 12 Cast RevealedUltimateFighter.comSee More: TUF 12 • Josh Koscheck • Georges St PierreThe next generation of potential UFC fighters has arrived. Season 12 of "The Ultimate Fighter" has an interesting collection of lightweights. You’ve got experienced fighters like Steve Sharp, Dennis Davis and Nam Phan, who have a combined 81 pro fights. Phan (15-7) is a veteran of Sengoku, King of the Cage and Strikeforce. And then a crew of 18 fighters between 21-24 years old. For the most part, it appears Spike and the UFC stayed away from combatants just entering the sport. TUF 12 debuts Sept. 15. Stunt
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I have had a few days away from climbing – in fact, my last session was 3 weekends ago at Froggatt – and so I got back to the gym this week. My local gym has an auto-belay setup so I was able to do some indoor routes without company.
And I struggled! Struggled to get [...]Dirtsurfing
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Two of the best in female MMA are on display Friday night in Everett, Wash., and on Showtime (11 p.m. ET/PT). Sarah Kaufman defends her 135-pound title against Roxanne Modafferi. Kaufman (11-0) is a slugger with eight stoppages on her record while Modafferi (15-5) will favor the fight getting to the ground. There was a little controversy this week when Kaufmann blogged that she didn’t enjoy being the Strikeforce Challengers cards. She views this card as inferior to many of the regular Strikeforce cards that Showtime airs.Sergio Non from USA Today broke down the fight: Although she lacks one-punch knockout power, she can erupt with flurries to the head that often leave opponents reeling."I just think there’s something very primal about it," Kaufman told USA TODAY in February before the Hashi fight. "It’s so technical. There really are so many different facets to it."Like Hashi and most of the other top-ranked female fighters, Modafferi (15-5) has a penchant for groundwork rather than boxing or kickboxing. Most of her victories saw her take down opponents before battering them on the mat or catching them with submission holds."I don’t really like stand-up, to be honest," Modafferi says. "But it was my weak point, and I’ve worked really hard at it."In the main event, it’s a battle of heavyweights as Shane Del Rosario butts heads with Lolohea Mahe. Del Rosario has often been rumored as a future opponent for Bobby Lashley. Instead, Lashley is fighting Chad Griggs next month in Houston. Strikeforce: Challenger weigh-in (Courtesy MMAJunkie): Shane Del Rosario (243.6) vs. Lolohea Mahe (264)Sarah Kaufman (134) vs. Roxanne Modafferi (133.4) – 135-pound titleCory Devela (171) vs. Bobby Voelker (170.4)Ron Humphrey (202.6) vs. Mike Kyle (205.8)Thomas Diagne (156) vs. Caros Fodor (155.6)RyanSheckler
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Melange Skateboarding comes through with another part from their video, Wiener, this one is the first montage.ChristianHosoi
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When Zuffa re-upped with Versus back in 2009 it seemed like an odd move. Then it looked disasterous when DirecTV dumped the network. Dana White couldn’t give specifics but there was a masterplan in place.With the growth of the WEC product (135-155 pound fighters) it appeared there might be some bigger suitors that would want to buy into the smaller weight class promotion. In addition, there were thoughts that the WEC might be eliminated, folded into the UFC and the little guys would be branded as UFC as well. That was inaccurate. The masterplan was to expand MMA coverage on Versus by adding UFC cards to its MMA lineup. Network television may also be part of the plan. It didn’t hurt that Versus’ parent company Comcast, is in the midst of purchasing NBC. Versus’ president Jamie Davis sat down with USA Today and talked about the win-win situation developing between the network and Zuffa. UFC on Versus 1 beat every single regular season hockey game on Versus with 1.4 million viewers. Davis points out it’s not simply the numbers that are important but the type of viewers UFC is bringing to the table. … it helped us bring the average age of our
viewership for the network too. The UFC and the WEC have a younger demographic
than what we used to have, for example, when we were OLN (Outdoor Life Network),
and has brought our average down to about 44 years old, from what was over 50
years old when we were OLN.And in turn, the UFC gets some of the unique viewers who are loyal to Versus. We carry fewer sports than some of the other sports networks, but … we have
very passionate fan bases in there. So for example, when you come to Versus, we are still the largest hunting and
fishing network in the nation. In addition that, we have this very passionate
hockey audience. In addition to that, we have this very passionate IndyCar
racing audience. We have the PBR audience. We have a college football audience
as well. And the Tour De France, for example, as well.
Before you scoff at the Tour De France, the network is pulling in big numbers especially on the ad sales side: According
to Mediaweek, Versus enjoyed a large increase in ad sales revenue. Trek,
Specialized and Cervélo were involved, along with Fizik, Easton Wheels, Clean
Bottles, Camelbak and Headsweats, as were non-cycling brands such as Nissan,
General Motors and Anheuser-Busch InBev. It said that is was expected that the
number would be considerably higher than the estimated $9.5 million achieved in
sponsorship last year. Along with its "Daily Line" show, Versus does a great job of cross-promoting. What we work very hard to do is to heavily promote within the other sports,
each others’ sports. So, for example, we’ve been promoting very heavily this
fight coming up this Sunday all throughout the Tour De France. We did the same thing for the March fight, in the hockey games that we were
doing, and in the IndyCar series, and in the PBR, etc. Some of those audiences
are those that are traditionally not viewers on Spike, for example, and
therefore we bring a new audience to UFC who are loyal fans on Versus.The younger audience is really the key. With the explosion of portable entertainment options along with the amount of time 18-34 year olds spend on their computers, television is fighting like heck to hook the young demographic. Headlined by Jon Jones versus Vladimir Matyushenko, UFC on Versus 2 hits the airwaves tomorrow night at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. GeoffRowley
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Check out this video of the skating going down on the new ramp, some commentary and a bit of time-lapse. You can also click any of those Converse banners you see to view some photos of the practice so far.
Read MoreBobBurnquist
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John Howard has been yeoman-like during his early days in the UFC. Sure the dude can talk trash with the best of them, but it’s his down-to-earth nature that may take him into deep waters in the welterweight division. Howard has slowly worked his way up the ladder with wins over Dennis Hallman, Daniel Roberts, Tamdan McCrory and Chris Wilson. All solid fighters but none spectacular. He was staring at an opportunity for a signature win against the highly touted Anthony Johnson but that fight was cancelled because of a Johnson injury. But you didn’t hear Howard whine and he isn’t complaining that his next opponent is a relative no name. In fact, he’s giving Jake Ellenberger an unusual level of respect. From Heavy.com: "I’m expecting him to come out hardcore and I’m prepared for that," Howard said. "I know he has heavy hands but I have heavy hands too. If he wants to brawl with a boxer then all power to him. Obviously I’m nervous, but I’m actually excited too. We have main card, on TV, and we’re going to have some fun."You’d expect that kind of straight talk from a guy who grew up in a gritty section of New England. The guy has made pretty nice money thus far with the promotion, having earned two bonuses on fight night. Yet he still hasn’t replaced his 1994 Honda Accord."It’s messed up. The locks are messed up, the tires. It’s my favorite car. I love it," Howard said. "That’s what makes me happy. That’s the type of guy I am. I don’t need certain things to make an impression. I tell people be happy with what you got. I am too."Howard (14-4, 4-0 UFC) and Ellenberger (22-5, 1-1 UFC) square off on Sunday during UFC on Versus 2. Ellenberger has less UFC experience than Howard but his competition may have been stronger, splitting fights against Mike Pyle and Carlos Condit. TaraLlanes
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NFL insider/MMA trainer Jay Glazer was the fill-in host on the nationally syndicated Dan Patrick Show on Friday morning. Give him credit, he mixed in several segments of MMA discussion during the three-hour show. The day’s poll question was "Which NFL player would make the best MMA fighter?"The candidates were Jared Allen, Ray Lewis, Shawne Merriman and Stephen Neal. If hardcore fans were voting, the results may have had Neal winning with 99 percent while the other three split the remaining 1 percent. After all, Neal was the NCAA heavyweight wrestling champ back in 1999. He won the title by downing current UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar.Neal actually finished last in the poll with just 6 percent of the vote. Ray Lewis smashed the field with 45 percent. Glazer said several times that Lewis has an amateur boxing and wrestling background. Are you buying that he’d have a chance against someone with Neal’s pedigree? Free-fall
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Following up on yesterday’s post, there were more developments today. As Josh Ellis puts it, “Imagine what could happen if you had a buried skatepark, fifty, sixty dudes, [and] a bunch of shovels…” Check out his flicks from today’s excavation right here, and don’t forget to check out the local TV news spot covering the dig at the bottom of the link.
Update: As of this morning, the city had filled in all the bowls that had been excavated in the past couple of days. Instead of simply barging, the skaters of Milwaukee are trying to go legit and work with the city. Help them out by heading over to the Save The Turf Facebook page. As stated there, “[t]his page is a petition page, by clicking ‘Like’ it’s your digital signature stating you’re in favor of preserving The Turf Skatepark cement bowls that were uncovered by DOT workers on Loomis Rd/894.”
Updated again: Wiskate has news of today’s refilling, a little bit of compassion, and The Turf’s original owner.
Mark\”Gator\”Rogowski
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IAIS keeps the summer hit with this throwaway montage.Whitewater
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Freediving
by Michael David SmithAll the fighters participating in UFC 117 will step on the scale Friday at the Oracle Arena in Oakland for the UFC 117 weigh-in, and if you can’t be there to watch it in person, you can watch it here at MMAFighting.com.
In the main event UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and challenger Chael Sonnen will both need to make the middleweight limit of 185 pounds.
The weigh-in starts Friday at 7PM ET and the video is below. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsAsherNolan
BamMargera
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Savannah Skates has a full Garret Olinger check out. Whitewater
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The UFC lines up solid veterans for Jon Jones and he keeps on blowing through them. Jones made Vladimir Matyushenko look like he’d never grappled before. The 23-year-old light heavyweight took advantage of a sloppy punch by Matyushenko, got the fight to the mat and quickly converted it into a dominant position Sunday. Jones moved into a crucifix and dropped 11 nasty elbows in a matter of seconds. Referee Herb Dean was forced to stop the fight, giving Jones his fifth UFC victory in just under two minutes in the main event of UFC on Versus 2 in San Diego. "I didn’t think it would end that quickly," Jones told UFC color analyst Joe Rogan. "I trained the hardest I’ve ever trained. I knew Vlad would be the toughest test of my career and things went really well."Jones is 11-1 (5-1 UFC), but really should be unbeaten. He suffered his only loss to Matt Hamill when he was disqualified for throwing an illegal elbow at "The Ultimate Fighter 10" finale. Jones is beginning to provide UFC officials with a matchmaking conundrum, because matchmaker Joe Silva and president Dana White don’t want to move him too quickly, but he’s destroying opponents so easily that they may have to throw him into deep waters next time out. Jones wouldn’t choose a name he’d like to face next. Finding him a top-10 UFC light heavyweight may be tough. Quinton Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Ryan Bader, Tito Ortiz, Matt Hamill and Rashad Evans are all tied up until at least late 2010. Evans is apparently going to wait for UFC light heavyweight champ Mauricio Rua to return from injury in early 2011. The other problem is that Jones is now training in the same camp as Evans in Albuquerque, N.M. If Randy Couture gets by James Toney in late August that’s a possible matchup that would sell well. Forrest Griffin is expected back in October from shoulder surgery. Rich Franklin is also out there waiting for a big fight.Jones looked superior in every aspect Sunday night. When the fight was standing, his 84 1/2-inch reach made Matyushenko uncomfortable. The Belarussian panicked a bit and threw a wild left hook. Jones ducked and scored the takedown that led to the finish of the fight. On the ground, Jones was deliberate. Matyushenko had an arm early but Jones stayed calm and quickly extricated himself from any danger. He then passed to side control where he attempted a few elbows. He made a nice veteran move by pinning Matyushenko’s left arm with his left hand and locked it down with his leg to set up the crucifix. The thing that separates Jones from a lot of MMA fighters is his viciousness. He wasted no time in throwing those brutal elbows into the side of the Belarussian’s head and ears. Other popular Sports stories on Yahoo!:• Controversial NCAA football star makes transfer official• Video: Shaquille O’Neal serenades teenage heartthrob• Golfer posts incredible score at Greenbrier Classic kayaking
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Fight fans will eat it up on both sides of the fence. MMA fans will root for Randy Couture while boxing fans will tune in to see if James Toney can represent he sweet science when they meet at UFC 118. The fight pulls from the origins of MMA. Can a brawler beat down a jiu-jitsu fighter? Is karate better than kick boxing? And can a boxer beat a wrestler? It has all the making for a monster pay-per-view in late August. Or does it? Deadspin says the fight proves little and you shouldn’t care:1. James Toney is 41 years old. Forty-one! Muhammad Ali was getting beaten by Trevor Berbick at 39. Mike Tyson, who never met a payday he didn’t like, hasn’t fought since he was 39. And Evander Holyfield, at 41 years old, was beaten by, yes, James Toney. What does Toney have left in the tank? Whatever he’s got, it’s no longer an indicator of his talent.Toney has plenty left, especially if he got down to cruiserweight where he belongs. He’s still a top-10 heavyweight, with a granite chin and defensive abilities as good as anyone in the sport.Check out some of the other reasons over at Deadspin, where the writer asks why does the argument even exist?5. It’s settling a debate that shouldn’t exist. MMA vs. Boxing? Who cares, other than the pay-per-view companies. Boxers box. MMAers, um, martial art. They’re two very different sports, each with their own fanbases, their own histories, their own advantages and shortcomings, and there’s more than enough room in the world for the both of them.There is room for both sports and they are very different. Again this goes to the core of fighting. My style is better than yours. Stupid or not, fans and the media eat it up. On a side note, it is interesting that this is one of the only fights we’ve seen Deadspin write somewhat serious analysis for when it comes to MMA. So someone got hooked a bit. AndyMacDonald
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Scott Gall gets rad for his Gorf Life welcome video. Via: WiSkate.Stunt
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Yushin Okami won a split decision over Mark Munoz at UFC on Versus 2 in San Diego, taking the judges cards 29-28, 28-29, 29-28. After a few minutes in the first round of feeling out his distance with Okami, Munoz took Okami down. He wasn’t able to do much with that takedown, and he took a few punches while feeling Okami out. Though the round was light in action, Okami likely took it. Munoz became more comfortable in the second round and let his hands go. He clipped Okami several times, and finished the round with a takedown. Going into the final round, it appeared that the winner of the round would win the fight. Munoz tried to return to his wrestling roots and take Okami down, but Okami showed excellent defense, sprawling and stuffing Munoz’s takedown attempts. Okami, who was controlled by middleweight title contender Chael Sonnen in their bout last fall, defended himself well against Munoz, a Division I champion wrestler for Oklahoma State. He also rocked Munoz with a few strikes throughout the bout.Okami’s 2010 is already shaping up much better than his 2009. This year, he has wins over Lucio Linhares and Munoz, while in 2009, he lost to Sonnen and battled injuries. Flying
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Olive has Ben Loates’ part from Bang On.SheaLopez
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I’ve only just got chance to post about last week’s trip to Froggatt Edge. Friends tell me that a crisp spring morning is better for climbing grit but if you ask me sunshine is the way forward. I headed to Froggatt Edge (just south of Sheffield) with a few friends for my first ascents on [...]DaveMirra
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Our boy Sam McGuire went to the Pacific Northwest with the Etnies team and came back with a few stories, some photos and a video all put together in this Zorchwest Tour feature.
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Atlanta Hates Us has a nice black & white montage from the much cooler month of March.AsherNolan
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by Michael David SmithJon Fitch and Thiago Alves are universally recognized as the second-best and third-best welterweights in mixed martial arts, so when they meet in the Octagon Saturday night at UFC 117, it will be a truly special fight. From a pure sporting standpoint, in terms of the quality of the competition, Fitch-Alves is a better fight than a lot of pay-per-view main events, and one of the 10 best fights in MMA so far this year.
And yet Fitch vs. Alves has been somewhat lost in the shuffle in the run-up to UFC 117. Chael Sonnen’s relentless trash talk toward Anderson Silva has swallowed up most of the pre-UFC 117 fight, and I’m even hearing from more fans who care about Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida and Roy Nelson vs. Junior dos Santos than I am for fans who are fired up about seeing Fitch fight Alves.
So why is a fight between two of the top three fighters in their weight class in the world not getting more attention? Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsRobMachado
RodneyMullen
RossPowers
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ScottBirley
A strange phenomenon occured last week with the signing of Jake Shields. After all the speculation and drama surrounding the possibility of the UFC stealing away Strikeforce’s middleweight champ, the signing was greeted with skepticism and a ho-hum attitude from much of the MMA blogosphere. Yahoo! Sports’ Dave Meltzer was even stronger: Honestly, the less they show of him the better. You showcase people to their
strengths and hide their weaknesses. You look at that for every person and then
expose them accordingly. Either a guy with no sub defense and takedown defense,
or hide him on the undercards where nobody can see him except the local ticket
buyers, preferably on a Vegas show where nobody shows up until late. Having
people sleep through Jon Fitch fights does less to make them want to see him
against GSP again. However, if they never saw those fights, and marketed a 15
fight winning streak and had people talk him up, they wouldn’t know enough to
not want to see him.Kid Nate from Bloody Elbow tried to take Meltzer to the woodshed:I have to strongly disagree with Meltzer here. Shields has been in
some not so great fights. But he’s also been in plenty of good ones. Personally,
I loved the (Jason) "Mayhem" (Miller) vs Shields match as a great grappling battle. It was just
wildly inappropriate for prime time on CBS. On a UFC PPV, I think the fans could
appreciate the skill and drama of two top grapplers battling, plus elbows are
legal in the UFC and that will make Shields’ game much more violent and
entertaining. Cagewriter tracked down Meltzer so he could elaborate on his take about Shields.I’m pro-Shields to the UFC. He’s a top 15 pound-for-pounder with a 15-fight win streak. He just manhandled a former UFC top three middleweight in Dan Henderson and his grappling is top notch. Just because his style can be plodding doesn’t mean he’s not marketable. How is he any different than some of the elite jiu-jitsu aces out of Brazil or better yet the hundreds of elite wrestlers around MMA? These are guys who generally possess rudimentary skills with their hands and if they don’t get the fight to the ground, it can be a slopfest. Because almost all of the elite stand-up fighters don’t possess the
necessary takedown defense to keep the champ at bay, it’s pretty clear the sport is short on strikers dangerous enough at welterweight to challenge St. Pierre. Dan Hardy and Paul Daley are primarily strikers and very marketable. Frankly their shots in big fights were borderline dreadful to watch. So why not bring in a guy who can test GSP in the grappling department and see what happens? The sport is all about matchups. We’re still very much in the infant stages of MMA and there simply aren’t a lot of truly well-rounded fighters out there. If he can get by Martin Kampmann and maybe one other elite welterweight, Shields (25-4) deserves his shot at solving the GSP riddle. Tip via Fight Opinion Rockclimbing
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by Michael David SmithWhen boxing champion James Toney first signed with the UFC, he didn’t see any reason he shouldn’t get a heavyweight title shot. And so, Toney says, he asked for Brock Lesnar as his first opponent inside the Octagon.
But the UFC had other ideas.
According to Toney, when the UFC told him he wasn’t just going to waltz right in and fight the heavyweight champ, that set off an interesting negotiation with the promotion, which floated the idea of having him fight Kimbo Slice before settling on Randy Couture as his first UFC opponent. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsDanPastor
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Karyn Bryant sat down with Vladimir Matyushenko and it’s almost shocking to hear the veteran light heavyweight talk about who he’d like to fight next. He doesn’t do it out of a lack of respect for Jon Jones, he was simply answering Bryant’s question. But it is odd. How many fans have actually considered the scenario where Matyushenko pulls the upset? How will he do it? Watching Monday night’s replays of Jones versus Matt Hamill and Jones versus Brandon Vera, makes the 22-year-old looked unstoppable. GerryNunn
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by Michael David SmithJames Toney, the soon-to-be 42-year-old pro boxer who was a two-time Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year, is preparing to take up a new sport when he steps inside the Octagon for a mixed martial arts fight with Randy Couture on Aug. 28 at UFC 118. But he’ll take some time out of his preparation on Wednesday to participate in a live chat with MMA and boxing fans here at MMAFighting.com.
If you want to know why Toney decided to give MMA a try, where he stands on the “boxing vs. MMA” debate, and how he views Couture as an opponent, this is your chance to ask him. The live chat begins Wednesday at 1:25PM ET. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsTonyHawk
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There’s going to be some competition for the fight-night bonuses at UFC on Versus 2. Tuesday, we told you about John Howard and his 1994 Honda Accord. Wednesday, it’s Mark Munoz and his 1992 Honda Accord. It proves two things, Hondas last and the crew of contenders on this card are still climbing the ladder to riches.Munoz, a former All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State, was having trouble supporting his wife and four kids. That’s while he was the wrestling coach at UC Davis. So he decided to get into prize fighting and mixed martial arts."There were times where I couldn’t even provide for my family," Munoz told the Orange County Register. "I accumulated much debt. The car got repossessed. The house foreclosed."Munoz (8-1) seems to be on the right track now as he preps to face Yushin Okami (24-5, 8-2 UFC). He’s entering his fifth fight in the UFC and owns his own gym, Reign in Lake Forest, Calif. But his frugal ways continue, he still has that old Honda. He also trains a lot with Blackhouse MMA, the famed Southern California gym that houses Anderson Silva, Junior Dos Santos, Lyoto Machida and the Nogueira Brothers. Munoz has served as a stand-in for Chael Sonnen as Silva preps to defend his title next weekend at UFC 117. Silva also has a win over Okami on his ledger. Munoz said via Examiner.com: "Anderson actually told me that after sparring with me, and after fighting Okami, Yushin has nothing for me. He knows what Okami has, so we’ve been working really hard to understand how he moves and how to counter back. He’s got a lot of great stuff that he’s showing me."Okami was once considered one of the top-five middleweights in the UFC. He’s a solid ground and pound fighter but his takedown defense was a big issue two fights ago against Sonnen. That would seem to play right into Munoz’s hands. Okami did show a more dangerous standup game in his last fight against Lucio Linhares. BamMargera
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TMZ loves the UFC. And it especially loves it for the potential that mixed martial artists may lose their cool, act like an animal and brawl in public. It hasn’t happened yet but you can bet the site is "covering" the UFC for just that reason. In March, TMZ got a small break when former UFC fighter Jon Koppenhaver went off the deep end getting into a bar fight and being dragged away in a spit hood. It got plenty of mileage from Tito Ortiz’s alleged assault on his wife Jenna Jameson in April. Now it’s running with Roger Huerta’s role in brawl outside an Austin bar.Using a grainy video as evidence TMZ reported:Twenty-seven-year-old Huerta — who was once featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated — was in front of a bar in Austin around 2 AM on Saturday morning … when some other people began fighting. Roger was near the scuffle … when he saw one of the men involved punch a female who was standing near the ruckus. Once Huerta sees the woman collapse to the ground — he instantly tries to confront the attacker saying, "You just punched a [expletive] girl." Chaos ensues and people scramble after the fighters, blocking the camera — but seconds later … a shirtless Huerta can be seen finishing his attack on the other man … who is sprawled out on the street. People rush in to aid the bloody man on the ground — who eventually gets off the pavement — as Huerta walks away from the battle ground. TMZ even got a comment on the brawl from Huerta’s former boss UFC president Dana White. Dana tells TMZ, "In no way do I condone street fighting, but when a guy puts his hands on a woman he deserves to be knocked the [expletive] out. Good for Roger."Cage Potato broke down the video and says it appears that TMZ altered the footage.Here’s a digitally enhanced (to improve clarity) version. The photo on the left is a screen capture we grabbed from the video. The one on the right is a still frame used by TMZ which appears to have been altered to add a tribal tattoo to match the one that adorns Huerta’s left shoulder. He also seems to be wearing an unbuttoned long sleeved shirt that is flowing back behind him. They call the whole story from TMZ irresponsible:I find it amazing that TMZ, who also have a daily television show and undoubtedly have access to far superior video editing equipment than my Macbook Pro, were unable to clean up the video quality of the stomp allegedly administered by Huerta, yet they pulled these clean screen captures from the beginning of the video to perhaps misleadingly make readers believe it was Roger who put his foot down on the guy’s head, when it is unclear exactly who is the assaulter in the video. Legit or not, other national news services are running with the story. CBS News posted a story Thursday afternoon, "Roger Huerta Street Fight: Video Apparently Shows UFC Fighter in Brawl".As you can see, the former UFC star is referred to as a UFC fighter. Although in the first two paragraphs, he’s called an ex-UFC fighter.Apparently Huerta isn’t angry. In fact, he’s embracing the whole thing. He sounded proud of what went down."I just don’t think that it’s right to hit a woman. Period," Huerta told TMZ."I approached the man calmly and said, ‘Do you know what you just did? You just knocked out this girl.’ But Huerta claims the other guy responded, "[Expletive] you, [expletive] these bitches, I’ll knock out any [expletive] bitch that I wanna [expletive] knock out, I’ll knock your [expletive] bitch ass out." Huerta added, "… and as he’s saying this, he’s taking off his shirt … and at that point I was like, alright.’ I got the better of him and I left," Huerta said. The 27-year-old explained, "If that was my mom, if that was my sister, my spouse, anyone … I would’ve wanted someone to step in and do something about it." Don’t be shocked if the fighter makes his way onto the gossip/crime blotter interview circuit soon. This seems like a story Greta Van Susteren, Nancy Grace, Rick Sanchez or Jane Velez-Mitchell would be all over. Huerta left the UFC in 2009. He’s gone 1-1 with his new promotion Bellator. TonyAlva
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Roy Nelson is prepping for the biggest opportunity of his career this weekend against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 117. The winner will get a title shot against the winner between UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez. Nelson wasn’t too impressed with Lesnar and even less impressed by the way Shane Carwin lost their fight at UFC 116. Nelson thinks Carwin outright quit. RyanSheckler
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The European Chris Haslam, Philipp Schuster kills this part from an Austrian video.JustinHoman
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John Howard has been yeoman-like during his early days in the UFC. Sure the dude can talk trash with the best of them, but it’s his down-to-earth nature that may take him into deep waters in the welterweight division. Howard has slowly worked his way up the ladder with wins over Dennis Hallman, Daniel Roberts, Tamdan McCrory and Chris Wilson. All solid fighters but none spectacular. He was staring at an opportunity for a signature win against the highly touted Anthony Johnson but that fight was cancelled because of a Johnson injury. But you didn’t hear Howard whine and he isn’t complaining that his next opponent is a relative no name. In fact, he’s giving Jake Ellenberger an unusual level of respect. From Heavy.com: "I’m expecting him to come out hardcore and I’m prepared for that," Howard said. "I know he has heavy hands but I have heavy hands too. If he wants to brawl with a boxer then all power to him. Obviously I’m nervous, but I’m actually excited too. We have main card, on TV, and we’re going to have some fun."You’d expect that kind of straight talk from a guy who grew up in a gritty section of New England. The guy has made pretty nice money thus far with the promotion, having earned two bonuses on fight night. Yet he still hasn’t replaced his 1994 Honda Accord."It’s messed up. The locks are messed up, the tires. It’s my favorite car. I love it," Howard said. "That’s what makes me happy. That’s the type of guy I am. I don’t need certain things to make an impression. I tell people be happy with what you got. I am too."Howard (14-4, 4-0 UFC) and Ellenberger (22-5, 1-1 UFC) square off on Sunday during UFC on Versus 2. Ellenberger has less UFC experience than Howard but his competition may have been stronger, splitting fights against Mike Pyle and Carlos Condit. Pierre-LucGagnon
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by Michael David SmithJon Jones has found a winning formula, and he’s sticking with it: He takes down his opponents and lands vicious elbows on the ground until the referee has to stop the fight.
That’s what Jones did to Matt Hamill in December (when Jones actually lost the fight by disqualification because one of the elbows was ruled illegal), that’s what Jones did to Brandon Vera in March, and that’s what Jones did to Vladimir Matyushenko on Sunday night.
More: Jones vs. Matyushenko Live Blog | UFC on Versus 2 Results
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsSteveCallero
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Cliché has a new promo video coming online soon, check the teaser for now. Small Wheels has a welcome video from Danny Garcia. Chris Haslam gets Free Lunch. Stereo has video pf Chris Pastras making a mural at CAAM.
by Michael David SmithAs James Toney talks up his UFC 118 fight with Randy Couture, he makes so many outlandish, over-the-top comments that you’re never sure how much of it he actually believes and can back up in the Octagon, how much is a delusional overestimation of his own boxing skill and underestimation of Couture’s MMA skill, and how much is pure hype that he doesn’t believe for a minute.
But whatever the case, it’s always entertaining.
In a live chat with MMAFighting.com, Toney belittled the punching prowess of MMA fighters in general and Couture’s striking in particular, and he said that while he admires Couture for having the, um, guts to fight him, he doesn’t think anyone in MMA can touch him standing up. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsWingsuitflying
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Joey Brezinski has one extra Cliché Battle Commander board saved for you. Head over to our Facebook for rules and regulations.
Check the latest montage from the Hard Times crew out east.JeremyMcGrath
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After a little time off between UFC cards, the president came to San Diego ready to work. Dana White has been all over Twitter the last three days offering free tickets and signed memorabilia to followers and fans. There’s one risk. You can’t drive like a maniac on the way to the sites. One San Diego-area fan found this out the hard way when he got a speeding ticket. @MrVera on Twitter told White about the ticket and the benevolent leader of MMA broke off three hundies (above 2:23 mark).It was all part of what UFC is calling a Tweetup. At a local sports bar, White held a contest to win VIP seats. Fans went head-to-head against White in pop-a-shot. It appears he’s got slightly more game in mini-hoops versus golf.ChrisKlug
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Ending out the week of Plus leftovers is Timmy Thompson.PeterMel
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Eastbound and Down isn’t for everybody but if you’re not a hypersensitive politically correct troll, it’s damn funny. Kenny Powers is classic in this super NSFW pitch to K-Swiss. One of his schemes is to wear his kicks as an MMA fighter against the former WEC champ Urijah Faber. We’re not so sure this video will air on ESPN, Comedy Central and MTV outlets, but the campaign is real. K-Swiss has brought the character on board to push it’s "Tubes" line. The mulleted phys-ed teacher will be featured along with Faber, San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis and New Orleans Saints’ TE Jeremy Shockey.Glenn Cole, from the ad agency 72andSunny says: "When you have four of the most intense pro athletes in the world–and that’s including Kenny Powers–you can tell a story about performance technology in a way that young guys care about." David Nichols, executive VP of K-Swiss explains the Powers’ approach: "We wanted to deliver unfiltered straight talk about how awesome TUBES are. Who better to do that than Kenny Powers? This approach is attention grabbing – progressive, creative and playful, which is our marketing mantra." There’s even a Kenny Powers/K-Swiss Facebook app! Tip via Cage Potato ChrisSenn
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by Michael David Smith
The UFC is back on Saturday night with what might be its deepest five-fight pay-per-view card of the year in UFC 117. All four undercard bouts should be competitive, exciting match-ups and although the main event probably won’t be very competitive, it has been promoted so well it has fans convinced that it will be. We’ve got the full preview and predictions below. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsLisaAnderson
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by Michael David SmithJames Toney, the soon-to-be 42-year-old pro boxer who was a two-time Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year, is preparing to take up a new sport when he steps inside the Octagon for a mixed martial arts fight with Randy Couture on Aug. 28 at UFC 118. But he’ll take some time out of his preparation on Wednesday to participate in a live chat with MMA and boxing fans here at MMAFighting.com.
If you want to know why Toney decided to give MMA a try, where he stands on the “boxing vs. MMA” debate, and how he views Couture as an opponent, this is your chance to ask him. The live chat begins Wednesday at 1:25PM ET. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsTommyClowers
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After a little time off between UFC cards, the president came to San Diego ready to work. Dana White has been all over Twitter the last three days offering free tickets and signed memorabilia to followers and fans. There’s one risk. You can’t drive like a maniac on the way to the sites. One San Diego-area fan found this out the hard way when he got a speeding ticket. @MrVera on Twitter told White about the ticket and the benevolent leader of MMA broke off three hundies (above 2:23 mark).It was all part of what UFC is calling a Tweetup. At a local sports bar, White held a contest to win VIP seats. Fans went head-to-head against White in pop-a-shot. It appears he’s got slightly more game in mini-hoops versus golf.TrevorHanson
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Since an old friend told me about his climbing trips to Thailand it’s been one of my boxes-to-tick. Climbing by the beach and then relaxing in the blue seas sounds too good to be true. I’m about to find out – I’ve decided to do it later this year…
Photo kindly shared by HalonaCoast on Flickr
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Since an old friend told me about his climbing trips to Thailand it’s been one of my boxes-to-tick. Climbing by the beach and then relaxing in the blue seas sounds too good to be true. I’m about to find out – I’ve decided to do it later this year…
Photo kindly shared by HalonaCoast on Flickr
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The UFC’s tour of San Diego continued on Friday as Jon Jones hit PETCO Park to throw out the first pitch before the Padres-Florida Marlins game. Along the way, he’s tortured by the smell of ballpark food. Jones he weighed 213 pounds roughly 22 hours before he had to weigh-in this afternoon. He’s normally calm and collected but he did look nervous about having to get on the PETCO mound. Maybe this is why:"The last time I threw a baseball was my senior year (in high school) in gym
class, and I sucked at it," says Jones. "I can’t catch a football. I’m a 6-4 black guy who can’t dunk. I think
what sets me aside is my passion." The southpaw threw a solid pitch that was snagged just outside the zone by the catcher. He looked more comfortable checking leg kicks from The Swinging Friar, the San Diego mascot.Jones has a slightly different look to his entourage this week. Well, sort of. His brother Arthur couldn’t make the trip. The rookie NFL defensive tackle is in Baltimore Ravens camp. But his taller, leaner clone, Chandler, a defensive lineman at Syracuse is traveling with Jones and his girlfriend. Tip via MMAforRealCoryLopez
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Sylvester Stallone definitely has respect for mixed martial artists. During this inside look at his new movie "The Expendables" he talks about trying to cast soldiers for the flick. While in Brazil he had trouble finding guys who looked the part so he hit an MMA gym headed up by former UFC and PRIDE heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. He found plenty of guys with cauliflower ears who didn’t look like male models. Nogueira plays one of the soldiers (2:30 mark). The movie also includes another former UFC champ in Randy Couture, in a much more prominent role along with former pro wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Terry Crews and Mickey Rourke. DannyWay
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Check the trailer for the up coming 1031 video, Get Bent, premiering on Halloween. Lakai has an iPhone video from the Nordical tour. World Industries welcomes Jani Laitiala to the team.
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by Michael David SmithA slow July for mixed martial arts has finally passed, and now August is finally upon us, a month so jam-packed with MMA action that it will be hard to keep up with it all. First up is UFC Live on Versus 2, a solid fight card on basic cable with Jon Jones taking on Vladimir Matyushenko in the main event. We’ve got the full preview and predictions below. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsScottBirley
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Two of the best in female MMA are on display Friday night in Everett, Wash., and on Showtime (11 p.m. ET/PT). Sarah Kaufman defends her 135-pound title against Roxanne Modafferi. Kaufman (11-0) is a slugger with eight stoppages on her record while Modafferi (15-5) will favor the fight getting to the ground. There was a little controversy this week when Kaufmann blogged that she didn’t enjoy being the Strikeforce Challengers cards. She views this card as inferior to many of the regular Strikeforce cards that Showtime airs.Sergio Non from USA Today broke down the fight: Although she lacks one-punch knockout power, she can erupt with flurries to the head that often leave opponents reeling."I just think there’s something very primal about it," Kaufman told USA TODAY in February before the Hashi fight. "It’s so technical. There really are so many different facets to it."Like Hashi and most of the other top-ranked female fighters, Modafferi (15-5) has a penchant for groundwork rather than boxing or kickboxing. Most of her victories saw her take down opponents before battering them on the mat or catching them with submission holds."I don’t really like stand-up, to be honest," Modafferi says. "But it was my weak point, and I’ve worked really hard at it."In the main event, it’s a battle of heavyweights as Shane Del Rosario butts heads with Lolohea Mahe. Del Rosario has often been rumored as a future opponent for Bobby Lashley. Instead, Lashley is fighting Chad Griggs next month in Houston. Strikeforce: Challenger weigh-in (Courtesy MMAJunkie): Shane Del Rosario (243.6) vs. Lolohea Mahe (264)Sarah Kaufman (134) vs. Roxanne Modafferi (133.4) – 135-pound titleCory Devela (171) vs. Bobby Voelker (170.4)Ron Humphrey (202.6) vs. Mike Kyle (205.8)Thomas Diagne (156) vs. Caros Fodor (155.6)Free-fall
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In terms of star power or the outcome of some of the televised fights, it wasn’t the best card ever, but UFC on Versus 2 was a huge winner when it came to exposure for the sport. The Sunday night primetime spot proved beneficial with little to compete against in the sports world. Versus went all in with its coverage, especially the postfight show. The network went back to San Diego for live spots with the winners, UFC analyst Joe Rogan and UFC president Dana White. Former WEC color voice Frank Mir even served as the studio analyst back in New York.The UFC pulled off a coup Monday morning with a Jon Jones appearance on ESPN’s "SportsCenter." The very informed and excited Josh Elliott anchored the interview. That’s a solid spot considering Jones was a minus-650 favorite and dispatched of Vladimir Matyushenko very easily, with few explosive highlights. Does Jones even qualify as one of the top-10 names in MMA? Didn’t the Juan Manuel Marquez (top-5 boxer by most accounts) win stand as a bigger story in the fight world? Yet ESPN chose to go with MMA. Elliott did miss the mark on one potential hot button issue. Jones is pretty clichéd with his answers but some recent James Toney trash-talk got him talking (3:45 mark of Versus video)."Now I actually have a heavyweight I wouldn’t mind fighting. That’s James Toney," Jones said when talking about getting his weight up to 231 pounds between fights. "’Mr. I’m going to slap Jon in his face.’ I’d bump up for that fight any day." It was a good weekend for MMA. Still makes you wonder why newspapers are so hesitant to cover the sport. We mentioned on Friday that the San Diego Union-Tribune seemed uneasy about covering the event. The paper did have an advance story on Saturday, but we didn’t see anything on the day of the event. Monday, freelancer Matt Youmans of the Las Vegas Review-Journal has the fight-night story for the paper. RyanSheckler
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A strange phenomenon occured last week with the signing of Jake Shields. After all the speculation and drama surrounding the possibility of the UFC stealing away Strikeforce’s middleweight champ, the signing was greeted with skepticism and a ho-hum attitude from much of the MMA blogosphere. Yahoo! Sports’ Dave Meltzer was even stronger: Honestly, the less they show of him the better. You showcase people to their
strengths and hide their weaknesses. You look at that for every person and then
expose them accordingly. Either a guy with no sub defense and takedown defense,
or hide him on the undercards where nobody can see him except the local ticket
buyers, preferably on a Vegas show where nobody shows up until late. Having
people sleep through Jon Fitch fights does less to make them want to see him
against GSP again. However, if they never saw those fights, and marketed a 15
fight winning streak and had people talk him up, they wouldn’t know enough to
not want to see him.Kid Nate from Bloody Elbow tried to take Meltzer to the woodshed:I have to strongly disagree with Meltzer here. Shields has been in
some not so great fights. But he’s also been in plenty of good ones. Personally,
I loved the (Jason) "Mayhem" (Miller) vs Shields match as a great grappling battle. It was just
wildly inappropriate for prime time on CBS. On a UFC PPV, I think the fans could
appreciate the skill and drama of two top grapplers battling, plus elbows are
legal in the UFC and that will make Shields’ game much more violent and
entertaining. Cagewriter tracked down Meltzer so he could elaborate on his take about Shields.I’m pro-Shields to the UFC. He’s a top 15 pound-for-pounder with a 15-fight win streak. He just manhandled a former UFC top three middleweight in Dan Henderson and his grappling is top notch. Just because his style can be plodding doesn’t mean he’s not marketable. How is he any different than some of the elite jiu-jitsu aces out of Brazil or better yet the hundreds of elite wrestlers around MMA? These are guys who generally possess rudimentary skills with their hands and if they don’t get the fight to the ground, it can be a slopfest. Because almost all of the elite stand-up fighters don’t possess the
necessary takedown defense to keep the champ at bay, it’s pretty clear the sport is short on strikers dangerous enough at welterweight to challenge St. Pierre. Dan Hardy and Paul Daley are primarily strikers and very marketable. Frankly their shots in big fights were borderline dreadful to watch. So why not bring in a guy who can test GSP in the grappling department and see what happens? The sport is all about matchups. We’re still very much in the infant stages of MMA and there simply aren’t a lot of truly well-rounded fighters out there. If he can get by Martin Kampmann and maybe one other elite welterweight, Shields (25-4) deserves his shot at solving the GSP riddle. Tip via Fight Opinion Skateboarding
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If you are hoping to improve your ability or learn more about training techniques and tools, then this blog will give you some of the answers – because that’s what I’m going to do too!
I’ve been climbing for about three years and have developed enough basic ability to get me up 6a routes. I’ve set [...]JasonMurphy
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Location: Stanage Plantation
Date: Sunday 27 July
Sunday shone this weekend. A planned trip to the gym was quickly canned and instead we made a trip out to a new bouldering spot. After a recommendation that Stanage plantation had some good climbing (thanks Jonny!) we checked my bouldering guide book and set out.
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More éS Game Of Skate coverage popping off with their stop in Frederick, Maryland.
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All over the San Diego area, the UFC is pushing ticket sales hard for Sunday’s UFC on Versus 2 card. Fighters made multiple appearances on Fox 5 San Diego this week, including main-event fighter Vladimir Matyushenko along with Antoni Hardonk. Weather hottie Chrissy Russo did a long Q&A with the fellas and then starting throwing punches herself.She was pretty spunky the next day, shadow boxing in the studio. So it’s clear some media members are fired up for the fight card. And the event needs the help. Remember, this card was moved from Salt Lake to San Diego because of lackluster ticket sales. It’d be a nice showing to get 8,000-9,000 paid in the rather spacious San Diego Sports Arena.Update: Russo will grow you especially if you watch the video where she talks about wearing skimpy bikinis and her buns smelling like cinnamon. Bad news for the UFC and MMA comes with the observation that the local paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune has been lukewarm about covering the event. In fact, it sounds like both local columnists, Nick Canepa and Tim Sullivan, may be skipping fight night. The Union-Tribune isn’t sending any other staffer to cover the card either. A freelancer from outside the market will provide the recap for readers on Monday. Update II: UFC P.R. convinced the local paper to write some advance stories. Today, the San Diego Union-Tribune has a good story on Jon Jones and his rise to potential MMA superstar. It sounds like the fight night coverage may a case of the staffer, Marc Zeigler, not being comfortable with his knowledge of the sport, so the paper is using Matt Youmans, a writer from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Zeigler will be attending the event as well. In the end, it all works out for the MMA fan and non-fan. They all get to read about the event. This is a battle the promotion faces in most cities. It’s good to see MMA comes out the winner here. DamienHobgood
DanPastor
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DannyHarf
If you are hoping to improve your ability or learn more about training techniques and tools, then this blog will give you some of the answers – because that’s what I’m going to do too!
I’ve been climbing for about three years and have developed enough basic ability to get me up 6a routes. I’ve set [...]FroggySoven
GeoffRowley
GerryNunn
JasonMurphy
JeremyMcGrath
We got some more solid skating from our friends in Oz, Alex Campbell Mag Minute is live.
Snowskate
Wakeboarding
Dirtsurfing
Motorsports
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A handful of Flip guys will be signing at Vans in Costa Mesa, CA tomorrow, Tuesday, August 3rd.
No skate clip today, but the Mostly Skateboarding twitter feed is always going off and I started a tumblr blog last week with skate and non-skate stuff I think looks cool.Motocross
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Rallying
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by Michael David SmithJames Toney, the soon-to-be 42-year-old pro boxer who was a two-time Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year, is preparing to take up a new sport when he steps inside the Octagon for a mixed martial arts fight with Randy Couture on Aug. 28 at UFC 118. But he’ll take some time out of his preparation on Wednesday to participate in a live chat with MMA and boxing fans here at MMAFighting.com.
If you want to know why Toney decided to give MMA a try, where he stands on the “boxing vs. MMA” debate, and how he views Couture as an opponent, this is your chance to ask him. The live chat begins Wednesday at 1:25PM ET. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsWhitewater
canoeing
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IAIS keeps the summer hit with this throwaway montage.Snowboarding
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Yushin Okami won a split decision over Mark Munoz at UFC on Versus 2 in San Diego, taking the judges cards 29-28, 28-29, 29-28. After a few minutes in the first round of feeling out his distance with Okami, Munoz took Okami down. He wasn’t able to do much with that takedown, and he took a few punches while feeling Okami out. Though the round was light in action, Okami likely took it. Munoz became more comfortable in the second round and let his hands go. He clipped Okami several times, and finished the round with a takedown. Going into the final round, it appeared that the winner of the round would win the fight. Munoz tried to return to his wrestling roots and take Okami down, but Okami showed excellent defense, sprawling and stuffing Munoz’s takedown attempts. Okami, who was controlled by middleweight title contender Chael Sonnen in their bout last fall, defended himself well against Munoz, a Division I champion wrestler for Oklahoma State. He also rocked Munoz with a few strikes throughout the bout.Okami’s 2010 is already shaping up much better than his 2009. This year, he has wins over Lucio Linhares and Munoz, while in 2009, he lost to Sonnen and battled injuries. ShawnMurray
SheaLopez
StacyPeralta
SteveBerra
SteveCallero
Savannah Skates has a full Garret Olinger check out. Motorcyclerally
Watersports
Rafting
Whitewater
kayaking
If you are hoping to improve your ability or learn more about training techniques and tools, then this blog will give you some of the answers – because that’s what I’m going to do too!
I’ve been climbing for about three years and have developed enough basic ability to get me up 6a routes. I’ve set [...]PogoPowerbocking
Paintball
Jibbing
Parkour
AndreReynolds
The UFC’s tour of San Diego continued on Friday as Jon Jones hit PETCO Park to throw out the first pitch before the Padres-Florida Marlins game. Along the way, he’s tortured by the smell of ballpark food. Jones he weighed 213 pounds roughly 22 hours before he had to weigh-in this afternoon. He’s normally calm and collected but he did look nervous about having to get on the PETCO mound. Maybe this is why:"The last time I threw a baseball was my senior year (in high school) in gym
class, and I sucked at it," says Jones. "I can’t catch a football. I’m a 6-4 black guy who can’t dunk. I think
what sets me aside is my passion." The southpaw threw a solid pitch that was snagged just outside the zone by the catcher. He looked more comfortable checking leg kicks from The Swinging Friar, the San Diego mascot.Jones has a slightly different look to his entourage this week. Well, sort of. His brother Arthur couldn’t make the trip. The rookie NFL defensive tackle is in Baltimore Ravens camp. But his taller, leaner clone, Chandler, a defensive lineman at Syracuse is traveling with Jones and his girlfriend. Tip via MMAforRealChrisKlug
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CJHobgood
Commonwealth Stacks welcomes Sebo Walker to the team with some good vibrations. Justin Eldridge and Kevin Terpining session Santa Clarita. Strange Notes is out back with David Gravette. Etnies has video from last year’s European Skateboard Championships.
Location: Stanage Plantation
Date: Sunday 27 July
Sunday shone this weekend. A planned trip to the gym was quickly canned and instead we made a trip out to a new bouldering spot. After a recommendation that Stanage plantation had some good climbing (thanks Jonny!) we checked my bouldering guide book and set out.
If you’re reading this wondering [...]LisaAnderson
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I have had a few days away from climbing – in fact, my last session was 3 weekends ago at Froggatt – and so I got back to the gym this week. My local gym has an auto-belay setup so I was able to do some indoor routes without company.
And I struggled! Struggled to get [...]Snocross
Rallying
Drifting
Supercross
Motorcyclerally
Location: Stanage Plantation
Date: Sunday 27 July
Sunday shone this weekend. A planned trip to the gym was quickly canned and instead we made a trip out to a new bouldering spot. After a recommendation that Stanage plantation had some good climbing (thanks Jonny!) we checked my bouldering guide book and set out.
If you’re reading this wondering [...]canoeing
Freediving
Scubadiving
Mountaineering
Iceclimbing
The Bones team might be strangers in the strange land know as Dubai, but at least they can skate all the amazing spots and feel right at home. Part one of two to keep you Trippin’.
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ZaneSchwenk
Finally a little sun! Yesterday I went climbing in Burbage (specifically Burbage south boulders) in the Peak District near Sheffield. I’m really glad I’ve got these boulders within 15 minutes of my home.
Although in a climbing wall / gym I’m happy on 6a/6b the techniques on grit boulders are a different world: lots of smearing [...]FroggySoven
GeoffRowley
GerryNunn
JasonMurphy
JeremyMcGrath
Fuel gets the scoop on our new 3D cover. Plus you can see more of Rune in 3D from Converse.
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Video of Wilmington, Delaware getting their éS Game Of Skate on, more to come.
JeremyMcGrath
JoshSanders
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KellyClark
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Fight fans will eat it up on both sides of the fence. MMA fans will root for Randy Couture while boxing fans will tune in to see if James Toney can represent he sweet science when they meet at UFC 118. The fight pulls from the origins of MMA. Can a brawler beat down a jiu-jitsu fighter? Is karate better than kick boxing? And can a boxer beat a wrestler? It has all the making for a monster pay-per-view in late August. Or does it? Deadspin says the fight proves little and you shouldn’t care:1. James Toney is 41 years old. Forty-one! Muhammad Ali was getting beaten by Trevor Berbick at 39. Mike Tyson, who never met a payday he didn’t like, hasn’t fought since he was 39. And Evander Holyfield, at 41 years old, was beaten by, yes, James Toney. What does Toney have left in the tank? Whatever he’s got, it’s no longer an indicator of his talent.Toney has plenty left, especially if he got down to cruiserweight where he belongs. He’s still a top-10 heavyweight, with a granite chin and defensive abilities as good as anyone in the sport.Check out some of the other reasons over at Deadspin, where the writer asks why does the argument even exist?5. It’s settling a debate that shouldn’t exist. MMA vs. Boxing? Who cares, other than the pay-per-view companies. Boxers box. MMAers, um, martial art. They’re two very different sports, each with their own fanbases, their own histories, their own advantages and shortcomings, and there’s more than enough room in the world for the both of them.There is room for both sports and they are very different. Again this goes to the core of fighting. My style is better than yours. Stupid or not, fans and the media eat it up. On a side note, it is interesting that this is one of the only fights we’ve seen Deadspin write somewhat serious analysis for when it comes to MMA. So someone got hooked a bit. RodneyMullen
RossPowers
RyanSheckler
ScottBirley
ShaneBeschen
This year’s Coastal Carnage is already out of control. An all new bowl design and 75 grand on the line is going to make things interesting. Wade Speyer can you please shows up again? We got word that the build was wrapping up so we wormed in a few runs. Adrian Mallory, Zack Dowdy and Brandon Perelson roll around on some new tranny.
Read MoreSheaLopez
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In his win over Chuck Liddell, Rich Franklin broke his arm. Now, he is using the pink cast that helped his arm heal to fight breast cancer. Franklin is raffling off his cast, which was signed by Chuck Liddell, to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Mouth guards, T-shirts and signed pictures will also be raffled off.There are plenty of ways to win the cast and other Franklin prizes. From Franklin’s website:Purchase a raffle ticket(s) online, order $100 or more of eligible merchandise online and receive a raffle entry, mail in check or money order for raffle tickets to American Fighter, 9795 Laurel Glen Dr, Loveland, OH 45140. There are no limits to how many tickets you can purchase.If you choose the $100 worth of merchandise option, go for the property of Team American Fighter tee, the women’s shirt proclaiming, "Damn, right, I hit like a girl," or the onesie, for the baby who prefers the cage over the crib. To buy a raffle ticket for $5 to support this worthy cause, click here. JoshSanders
JustinHoman
KellyClark
KellySlater
KennyBartram
To outsiders, Las Vegas looks like a booming money maker. If you’ve been around the city for the last few years, the true story can be told by near 15 percent unemployment and several unfinished billion-dollar casino projects. So why exactly is Sin City mentioned as a destination for professional sports? The leagues and owners may want to look at the UFC as an example of what Vegas can and can’t support. When the New York Islanders’ wishes for a new arena have been consistently rebuffed, Las Vegas is mentioned as a possible destination. The same goes for NBA clubs on the brink like Memphis, Detroit and Indiana. The NBA is an expensive proposition for the average fan. The three NBA clubs rumored to be in trouble average roughly $45 per ticket. That’s 41 times a season. There’s serious doubt that Las Vegas fans and tourists would fill a 20,000 arena on a nightly basis. The UFC is a prime example of what’s happening in Las Vegas. While expanding across the world, the promotion has cut back it’s Las Vegas schedule to roughly six-seven cards a year. It may need to cut a few more events. UFC 116 is a prime example. The event did a monster top-5 all-time gate at over $4 million but only had 12,740 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which can hold close to 17,000. It also comped over 3,000 tickets and had more than 2,000 unsold. It’s no knock on the product or the fight card. Brock Lesnar is one of the biggest names in the sport and the card likely pulled down one of the top pay-per-view buy rates in the history of MMA. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to decifer the reasons. Yet this week, Chris Milam, the CEO of International Development Management LLC who is pushing for funding to build a 20,000-seat arena on the Las Vegas strip, threw out this juicy nugget via the Las Vegas Sun:"We have an NBA team under contract," Milam said, declining to name the franchise. But the deal will take effect only if "other pieces of the puzzle fall into place: One of those pieces will be that a building (arena) is approved," he said.Milam presents his case for the second time in front of Clark County commissioners on Aug. 4. The first time, he and three separate arena-project backers, we’re quickly shot down by the powers that be. A new, state-of-the-art arena would be dynamite for the city and it’s only current pro franchise, the UFC, but it seems like a longshot that anything will sell out in Vegas at high-dollar prices for a long time to come.CoreyBohan
CoryLopez
DamienHobgood
DanPastor
DaneReynolds
Location: Stanage Plantation
Date: Sunday 27 July
Sunday shone this weekend. A planned trip to the gym was quickly canned and instead we made a trip out to a new bouldering spot. After a recommendation that Stanage plantation had some good climbing (thanks Jonny!) we checked my bouldering guide book and set out.
If you’re reading this wondering [...]ErinJackson
FabioladaSilva
FroggySoven
GeoffRowley
GerryNunn
If you thought Sarah Kaufman’s win over Roxanne Modafferi was a great brawl, you should follow the throwdown over female MMA going down between several MMA blogs. One side thinks female MMA is unathletic, stinks and doesn’t belong in a prime spot on television. The other is irked by the lack of respect. The Kaufman flap began when she blogged that she was unhappy with her placement on Strikeforce Challengers 9. Kaufman (12-0) delivered a nice finishing slam to end things against Modafferi, but MMA Payout says the slam only backs its argument that female fighting is where it belongs. If anything, the slam is further support for the idea that women lack much of the speed, strength, and damage threshold that make MMA so dynamic and exciting. The Kaufman slam pales in comparison to Rampage-Arona (or even Harris-Branch), which perfectly summarizes the difference between the two sports and why women’s MMA has such a tough row to hoe.The slam has become a lightning rod for backers of female MMA and Kaufman. Fightlinker dished out its own slam calling MMA Payout’s analysis "asinine" and that it didn’t belong on a site analyzing the business side of MMA. Fight Opinion wasn’t happy with the prefight criticism Kaufman got for complaining about exposure: She stated her demand to fight on Strikeforce main cards. Who came blame her? The fans didn’t. Apparently the media, however, in large part is not happy with her attitude. Memo to those criticizing her with largely manufactured outrage — who else is going to promote her if the promotion she works for isn’t doing a good enough job promoting her or themselves?FO says men do it all the time, so why can’t Kaufman? Let’s call it for what it is — Sarah did something that other fighters in the promotion have done (promoted themselves) and yet she gets heat for it while everyone else who goes into business for themselves in Strikeforce gets a shrug of the shoulders from beat writers. She doesn’t have a contract like Dan Henderson and making a living at a business that requires 100% devotion means you have to scratch and claw to get every dollar you can make. Whether that’s through sponsorships, commercials, fight salary, or whatever the revenue vehicle may be, she’s got to make a living.Zach at FO thinks several bloggers ripped Kaufman because it made for a nice story during a slow news week. So why the heat against Sarah by writers, which is a completely different reaction to the supportive response from fans? It’s a melting pot of reasons. First, it’s a dry news cycle. Writers are looking for material. Second, she’s a woman and there’s plenty of vocal fans who are not on the female MMA bandwagon.If you read Cagewriter on a regular basis, for me the jury is still out on female MMA. I thought the Gina Carano-Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos fight was as good as any I’d seen during 2009. But that type of female fight is too often outnumbered by unathletic-looking clinchfests. Fight Opinion is right, ultimately it’s up to you guys. If you tune in on a regular basis, producing large viewership numbers, and female MMA helps to fill up arenas around the country, it’s got a future. It’s certainly a much better product than female boxing but so is the WNBA and for some reason men have consistently snubbed it. Motocross
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I have had a few days away from climbing – in fact, my last session was 3 weekends ago at Froggatt – and so I got back to the gym this week. My local gym has an auto-belay setup so I was able to do some indoor routes without company.
And I struggled! Struggled to get [...]JoshSanders
JustinHoman
KellyClark
KellySlater
KennyBartram
Plus has some leftovers from their new video. We’ll start with Vincent Santelli’s leftover part.PeterMel
PeterMendia
PhillipSoven
Pierre-LucGagnon
RobMachado
I have had a few days away from climbing – in fact, my last session was 3 weekends ago at Froggatt – and so I got back to the gym this week. My local gym has an auto-belay setup so I was able to do some indoor routes without company.
And I struggled! Struggled to get [...]Canyoning
Freesoloclimbing
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by Michael David SmithThe long-awaited rematch between World Extreme Cagefighting rivals Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone is set for WEC 51 on September 30, a major fight card that will demonstrate the WEC’s ability to put on big events even as its top star, Urijah Faber, nurses a leg injury.
Varner announced the Cerrone rematch on his web site, and the addition of that fight not only makes WEC 51 one of the best fight cards of the rest of the year in MMA, it also provides some hints about where the WEC is headed for the rest of the year, and what a future WEC pay-per-view card might look like. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsEilssaSteamer
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The embarrassing CBS brawl at the end of Strikeforce’s April card is pretty much dead and buried. The fighters have been fined and most have served their full suspensions. The main culprit in the explosion, Jason Miller, even swallowed his pride and took the blame. "Maybe I kind of gave Strikeforce a black eye," Miller told Joe Rogan during the UFC analyst’s weekly podcast (1:49 mark). That’s good to hear. After all, it was Miller who found his way into the cage and got in Jake Shields’ face as he was on the microphone commenting about his huge win over Dan Henderson. Then Miller, with a smirk on his face, asked for a rematch, and Shields, along with the Diaz Brothers, responded by trying to punch "Mayhem." He was knocked to the ground, kicked and punched in a 7-on-1 situation. "I brought some attention to us. But I gave Strikeforce a black eye by causing that whole drama," said Miller.That’s when Rogan cut him off. "The people who should get the blame are the people who let you in. No one should’ve let you in," said Rogan.Correct, they deserve a tiny bit of the blame. But how would they know the fighters wouldn’t be able to control themselves? Can’t you place the blame for any fight on the situation, atmosphere or setting? "There were too many [expletive] people in the Octagon," said Rogan. "It was you who was an unwanted person in the Octagon and you were interfering with someone who was getting their glory."Now Rogan is starting to make some sense."You get a bunch of [expletive] dogs together," said Rogan. "And dogs start growling and [expletive] happens. You can’t get mad at the dogs."Lovely, now we’re comparing MMA fighters to uncontrollable dogs? Can we hold press conferences anymore? Maybe no one should be in the cage following a fight except for Rogan/Gus Johnson and the fighter. All camps need to exit immediately. There’s a lot of excuse making here. Bottomline is that Miller blew it, he knows that. Shields blew it, he knows it. The Diaz Brothers blew it, they’ll never get that. But everyone needs to stop making excuses for what happened. Three-month suspensions were handed down. Miller cost himself the first shot at the vacant Strikeforce middleweight title, Nick Diaz cost himself a June fight, and Shields bought himself a ticket out of the promotion and a reduced deal with the UFC. The sport has a fragile image with most non-fans and has to be careful not to provide any material for opponents of MMA to use in trashing the sport and labeling it barbaric. Free-fall
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Stereo finds Tony Karr in the Pacific Northwest. Markisa has Paul Rodriguez’ part from Forecast in HD. Denis Durrant talks about coming up for C1rca.
RossPowers
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ShawnMurray
WiSkate makes it to Mini Video 68.AndreReynolds
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BamMargera
On the slowest sports day of the year we look ahead to the second half of 2010. Baseball writers have laid out their first-half award winners, so let’s fire away with mixed martial arts’ highs and lows from the first half of 2010.Fighter of the YearThis isn’t necessarily an MVP award and doesn’t have to be a champion. FOY candidates come in all shapes and sizes. It can be someone who revitalized their career, shocked the world or simply put themselves top of mind for most fight fans. 1. Brock LesnarThe UFC heavyweight champ’s win over Shane Carwin showed he still has a ways to go. But the way he did it at UFC 116 changed many folks’ opinion of the loudmouth former pro wrestler. Lesnar won back a lot of fans by the way he handled himself in and out of the cage. He showed unreal moxie by surviving the onslaught from the mammoth Carwin in the first and some creativity with the way he finished the match via arm-triangle choke.Lesnar, who battled a life-altering stomach ailment at the end of 2009, showed a renewed attitude with the media and towards his opponent before the fight. He was also incredibly respectful and humble following the win. 2. Chael Sonnen Sonnen is now the middleweight version of Lesnar. He busted down the door to a title shot by throwing Nate Marquardt around the Octagon at UFC 109. Then the former republican political candidate from Oregon went on a verbal rampage stoking the fire for his fight against Anderson Silva, who isn’t exactly a fan favorite right now. It’s set up a great scenario for fans who get to root for which fighter they dislike the most. 3. Alistair OvereemFighting mostly in Japan, Overeem was opening some eyes with his dominance and the fact that he had grown from a sleek light heavyweight to a striking monster at 253 pounds. But the question loomed — was it natural? Overeem came to the U.S. in April and destroyed Brett Rogers, something Fedor Emelianenko had much more difficulty doing. Most importantly, Overeem was clean. Now he’s the non-UFC heavyweight fans are calling for to get a shot at the big league’s elite. 4. Jon Jones Jones burst onto the scene in 2009 and his performances have made it hard for the UFC to find fights for him. The promotion doesn’t want to move him to quickly but it’s clear after literally breaking Brandon Vera’s face at UFC on Versus 1 in Denver, they have to fast track the 22-year-old. Next up is Vladimir Matyushenko on Aug. 1. After that, who can argue against Jones being in the mix with the likes of Lyoto Machida, Quinton Jackson, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Rashad Evans? 5. Chris Leben Leben isn’t beating the cream of the crop at middleweight but the feat of two wins in 14 days is sick. He was also bouncing back from one of the lowest points of his career at the backend of 2009 when he was put to sleep by Jake Rosholt, who isn’t even with the UFC anymore. "The Crippler" has now put himself in line for a fight against a top middleweight, that’s something no analyst or fans, would’ve been clamoring for a year ago. Others: Court McGee, Roy Nelson, Mauricio Rua, Gilbert Melendez, Fabricio Werdum Breakout Fighters of the Year1. Frank Edgar"The Answer" was already established as a top-5 fighter at 155 pounds but few thought he had a chance to beat B.J. Penn. After his loss to Georges St. Pierre, Penn appeared to be an unsolvable riddle at lightweight. Edgar’s gameplan at UFC 113 was brilliant in taking out Penn and now many pundits have him on the top-10 pound-for-pound list. 2. Mo LawalAfter making the transition from high-level amateur wrestler, Lawal is only five fights into his MMA career. He’s made a mark with his mouth and his skills in the cage. Lawal took out one of the hottest young fighters in the game in Gegard Mousasi. A few more dominant wins and people will be clamoring for him to test himself in the talent-rich 205 division in the UFC. 3. Evan DunhamBoy, he doesn’t look the part of the badass, but Dunham has a pretty good nasty streak and a well-rounded game. There are tons of promising lightweights in their 20s and Dunham pushed right towards to the top of the list by completely frustrating Tyson Griffin, who had only lost to Edgar and Sean Sherk, coming into their fight at UFC 116. Dunham vaults all the way up to face Sherk at UFC 119 in September. 4. Ross PearsonPearson, 25, has opened some eyes after what was an odd run to the Season 9 title on "The Ultimate Fighter." Not many fans thought there was a real prospect coming off the show but Pearson shut up the critics by brutalizing Denis Siver. Up next, he gets Cole Miller in September. 5. Brendan SchaubI guess Roy Nelson is really, really good. Schaub had a tough time with the big-bellied one at the TUF 10 Finale, but he responded by storming through his first two opponents since. And the 6-foot-4, 240-pounder did it the way people love to see heavyweights doling out their beatings, via the knockout. Schaub showed heavy hands and a killer instinct in destroying to bulky wrestlers in Chris Tuchsherer and Chase Gormely. Others: Gerald Harris, Ryan Bader, Luke Rockhold, Ben AskrenMost Disappointing Fighters1. Diego SanchezThe move to 170 pounds proved to be a disaster. Sanchez panicked a bit after he lost badly to Penn at UFC 107. He moved back from 155 and he looked tiny and out of shape in a loss to John Hathaway. Sanchez needs to go back down to lightweight, sharpen up his skill set and most importantly, come in with better gameplans. 2. Frank MirA third Mir-Lesnar fights had fans salivating until they saw the stratergy Mir came up with for his interim UFC heavyweight title fight against Shane Carwin. Mir, who was overpowered by Lesnar in their second fight chose to lock horns in a clinch battle on the cage against Carwin too. He was mauled and is now fighting a crisis of confidence. Mir is certainly still a top-10 heavyweight but he needs fight down in the 250s and be a thinking big man. 3. Paul DaleyThe fall came quicker than the ascent for Daley. The British sluggest stormed his way towards a UFC welterweight title shot by getting a fight against Josh Koscheck. Fifteen minutes and 30 seconds later he was looking for a job. Daley’s lack of takedown defense was alarming, but his actions after the fight were just plain stupid. He slugged Koscheck just second after the bell prompting UFC president Dana White to cut him from the roster immediately and state that he’ll never fight in the UFC again. 4. Takanori GomiOnce considered the top lightweight in the world, lack of dedication and hard work caught up with Gomi. He’s only 31 but Gomi’s battling the fact that he hasn’t added to his game much over the years. Gomi looked tentative in his first UFC fight against Kenny Florian. He needs a bang-up performance against Tyson Griffin in two weeks to stick around. 5. Marius ZaromskisSo much for that shocking victory at DREAM’s 2009 Welterweight Grand Prix. Zaromskis showed off solid takedown defense and vicious head-kick KO power in storming to the victories in Japan. Once he came stateside to face Nick Diaz and Evangelista Santos, he was uncovered as a bit of sham. Head movement! Zaromskis was a punching bag in both of Strikeforce matchups. Others: Dan Lauzon, Rolles Gracie, Phillipe Nover, Joachim Hansen Fighters who put their career on life support1. Kimbo SliceWe didn’t know Kimbo’s fight against Matt Mitrione was a make or break fight but it was. Kimbo couldn’t check leg kicks and lost badly to a guy with one professional fight. The UFC thought the sizzle was gone and now we’re in a waiting pattern on Kimbo. Strikeforce has repeatedly said its not interested. You’d think the former YouTube brawler would have Japan clamoring for his services but nothing has come down yet. Now there’s rumors of a ridiculous fight against World’s Strongest Man freak Mariusz Pudzianowski. 2. Andrei ArlovskiArlovski, 31, admitted before his lackluster loss to Antonio Silva that he’d worked with a sports psychiatrist. He needs more sessions. Arlovski’s experimenting with a boxing career has completely screwed him mentally in the cage during MMA fights. He’s too calculated now. Where did the killer instinct go? He better get it back soon or he’s destined to be a card filled in Japan. 3. Mark ColemanThe UFC and PRIDE legend tried to reinvent himself by training smarter and harder, but there’s only so much you can get out of the body at age 45. Coleman gassed quickly and broke mentally in his fight against fellow veteran Randy Couture. The performance was so bad, that in spite of Coleman fighting in a UFC main event, the promotion dumped him. There really isn’t much more he can do beyond hit the minor league for a few more paydays. Let’s hope he stays healthy and avoid any serious damage. 4. Paul BuentelloBuentello got a second chance at the big time when he returned to the UFC, but he just couldn’t pull the trigger against Cheick Kongo. Buentello has never been in premium shape and it costs him against the Frenchman, who took him down at will at UFC on Versus 1. 5. Frank TriggTrigg, 38, is ready for the announcer’s booth. He’s one of the best and getting better. He’s ready for the next phase in his life and Matt Serra made sure of it that by scoring a nasty knockout win at UFC 109. Others: Keith Jardine, Nate Quarry, Renzo Gracie SheaLopez
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To outsiders, Las Vegas looks like a booming money maker. If you’ve been around the city for the last few years, the true story can be told by near 15 percent unemployment and several unfinished billion-dollar casino projects. So why exactly is Sin City mentioned as a destination for professional sports? The leagues and owners may want to look at the UFC as an example of what Vegas can and can’t support. When the New York Islanders’ wishes for a new arena have been consistently rebuffed, Las Vegas is mentioned as a possible destination. The same goes for NBA clubs on the brink like Memphis, Detroit and Indiana. The NBA is an expensive proposition for the average fan. The three NBA clubs rumored to be in trouble average roughly $45 per ticket. That’s 41 times a season. There’s serious doubt that Las Vegas fans and tourists would fill a 20,000 arena on a nightly basis. The UFC is a prime example of what’s happening in Las Vegas. While expanding across the world, the promotion has cut back it’s Las Vegas schedule to roughly six-seven cards a year. It may need to cut a few more events. UFC 116 is a prime example. The event did a monster top-5 all-time gate at over $4 million but only had 12,740 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which can hold close to 17,000. It also comped over 3,000 tickets and had more than 2,000 unsold. It’s no knock on the product or the fight card. Brock Lesnar is one of the biggest names in the sport and the card likely pulled down one of the top pay-per-view buy rates in the history of MMA. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to decifer the reasons. Yet this week, Chris Milam, the CEO of International Development Management LLC who is pushing for funding to build a 20,000-seat arena on the Las Vegas strip, threw out this juicy nugget via the Las Vegas Sun:"We have an NBA team under contract," Milam said, declining to name the franchise. But the deal will take effect only if "other pieces of the puzzle fall into place: One of those pieces will be that a building (arena) is approved," he said.Milam presents his case for the second time in front of Clark County commissioners on Aug. 4. The first time, he and three separate arena-project backers, we’re quickly shot down by the powers that be. A new, state-of-the-art arena would be dynamite for the city and it’s only current pro franchise, the UFC, but it seems like a longshot that anything will sell out in Vegas at high-dollar prices for a long time to come.CoryLopez
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Habitat Skateboards announced today that their third video, Origin, will be “a dual DVD and I-Tunes release on October 18th, 2010.?
The UFC is hitting Oakland in August. Why you ask? It’s a town of fighters. Ever sit in the "Black Hole" at an Oakland Raider game wearing a Chargers’ jersey? Then you know what we’re talking about. On Aug. 7, Oracle Arena will host 11 great UFC fights but now the pressure is on. Who can earn the UFC’s bonus after what just went down in this brou-ha-ha in Oaktown? Who can top this female MMA streetfight for excitement? It had everything. Both ladies are wearing traditional fighting trunks. They seem well-rounded. There’s a few thai clinches employed along with slick boxing, knees and a bevy of kicks. Enjoy the full video, but it’s very NSFW. It would be tremendous if Dana White showed this to his fighters during his "put on a great show speech" right after the UFC 117 weigh-ins. The video already has 52,000 views. Who wants to bet it outperforms Impact FC by at least 400,000 when all is said and done? One serious point, let’s hope Bay Area news stations play the heck out of this thing in an effort to catch the dirtball who slugged the woman and dropped her (7:05 mark). Deadspin has a full breakdown of the background on this brawl. DanPastor
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Boorish, disrespectful, clownish, obnoxious, rude and even insubordinate. Those are just some of the derogatory terms used to describe Anderson Silva’s behavior during the main event at UFC 112. Between the gyrating, dancing and his failure to engage during much of the fight, Silva sent Dana White over the edge, disrespected the UAE royal family (his new bosses) and turned off many fans. Silva showed a little contrition in the immediate aftermath but during a UFC 117 teleconference, to preview next weekend’s main event, it was good to find out the old Silva is still alive and well.Showing once again he doesn’t get it, the UFC middleweight champ made gave plenty of one-word answers and mocked most of the questions. It’s the fight game. Part of your job is to sell the fight and in doing so raise your own profile. It’s fine Silva’s a jerk, we get that. But at least embrace it. Floyd Mayweather is a genius. He gets it. As long as you pick a side, Floyd is happy. That’s why he’s making $25 million a fight. Silva is on the opposite end of the spectrum. His approach during an incredible 11-fight UFC win streak is still why almost no one outside of MMA has any idea who he is. Chael Sonnen, who is the antithesis of Silva with the media and fans, gets it and wrapped things up nicely. "He comes on here and says something stupid as if he’s saying some sort of Nobel Prize winning statement. He truly believes the answer he gave few minutes ago, that people are tuning in to see a fight, and not see anything else. He really means that," Sonnen said (5:15 mark). "He feels like he’s taking the moral high ground." Just as he’s been doing for the last few months, Sonnen talked lots of trash during the call. Silva chose to basically mock every question he was asked and then hid behind the excuse that he refused to get into a war of words with his opponent. One problem: the majority of the questions were legitimate questions about the fight and had nothing to do with Sonnen flapping his gums."He couldn’t be anymore wrong," Sonnen said. "Does he know anything about business? That’s not what people are tuning in to see. People don’t just tune in to see people fight. They want to know why they’re fighting? He couldn’t have this industry anymore backward." Silva came out firing blanks and it never got better. AOL Fanhouse’s Mike Chiapetta then pushed more (2:50 mark) by invoking his best Joe Pesci from "Goodfellas" (VIDEO – 2:50 mark). Silva’s manager/translator Ed Soares said he had trouble understanding the question. The one time Silva showed passion was when he said he didn’t care about White’s opinion.After UFC 112, White said Silva could face termination. You get the feeling this is all going to end badly. Maybe we’re headed toward another cold war with Silva on the outside looking in, like Tito v. Dana. EilssaSteamer
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A strange phenomenon occured last week with the signing of Jake Shields. After all the speculation and drama surrounding the possibility of the UFC stealing away Strikeforce’s middleweight champ, the signing was greeted with skepticism and a ho-hum attitude from much of the MMA blogosphere. Yahoo! Sports’ Dave Meltzer was even stronger: Honestly, the less they show of him the better. You showcase people to their
strengths and hide their weaknesses. You look at that for every person and then
expose them accordingly. Either a guy with no sub defense and takedown defense,
or hide him on the undercards where nobody can see him except the local ticket
buyers, preferably on a Vegas show where nobody shows up until late. Having
people sleep through Jon Fitch fights does less to make them want to see him
against GSP again. However, if they never saw those fights, and marketed a 15
fight winning streak and had people talk him up, they wouldn’t know enough to
not want to see him.Kid Nate from Bloody Elbow tried to take Meltzer to the woodshed:I have to strongly disagree with Meltzer here. Shields has been in
some not so great fights. But he’s also been in plenty of good ones. Personally,
I loved the (Jason) "Mayhem" (Miller) vs Shields match as a great grappling battle. It was just
wildly inappropriate for prime time on CBS. On a UFC PPV, I think the fans could
appreciate the skill and drama of two top grapplers battling, plus elbows are
legal in the UFC and that will make Shields’ game much more violent and
entertaining. Cagewriter tracked down Meltzer so he could elaborate on his take about Shields.I’m pro-Shields to the UFC. He’s a top 15 pound-for-pounder with a 15-fight win streak. He just manhandled a former UFC top three middleweight in Dan Henderson and his grappling is top notch. Just because his style can be plodding doesn’t mean he’s not marketable. How is he any different than some of the elite jiu-jitsu aces out of Brazil or better yet the hundreds of elite wrestlers around MMA? These are guys who generally possess rudimentary skills with their hands and if they don’t get the fight to the ground, it can be a slopfest. Because almost all of the elite stand-up fighters don’t possess the
necessary takedown defense to keep the champ at bay, it’s pretty clear the sport is short on strikers dangerous enough at welterweight to challenge St. Pierre. Dan Hardy and Paul Daley are primarily strikers and very marketable. Frankly their shots in big fights were borderline dreadful to watch. So why not bring in a guy who can test GSP in the grappling department and see what happens? The sport is all about matchups. We’re still very much in the infant stages of MMA and there simply aren’t a lot of truly well-rounded fighters out there. If he can get by Martin Kampmann and maybe one other elite welterweight, Shields (25-4) deserves his shot at solving the GSP riddle. Tip via Fight Opinion DarrenShapiro
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Landscape has some offcuts from Berlin which seems to be another hot European skate destination these days.Flying
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Finally a little sun! Yesterday I went climbing in Burbage (specifically Burbage south boulders) in the Peak District near Sheffield. I’m really glad I’ve got these boulders within 15 minutes of my home.
Although in a climbing wall / gym I’m happy on 6a/6b the techniques on grit boulders are a different world: lots of smearing [...]RodneyMullen
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I have had a few days away from climbing – in fact, my last session was 3 weekends ago at Froggatt – and so I got back to the gym this week. My local gym has an auto-belay setup so I was able to do some indoor routes without company.
And I struggled! Struggled to get [...]Flying
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UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre is No. 2 in Yahoo! Sports’ pound-for-pound rankings. For a man who is driven to be the best, being No. 2 to anyone, even Anderson Silva, is not OK. GSP wants to be the undisputed best mixed martial artist on the planet. He’s willing to fight for that title. And if he wins it, what’s next? According to him, retirement.Still, if St-Pierre takes "a couple" of welterweight fights in the next year or two, and if Silva is still the pound-for-pound king at that point, the French-Canadian then would consider moving up to fight him. And if he defeats Silva, that’s a win worthy of retirement, he said."If one day I fight at 185 pounds for a superfight to know who is the best pound-for-pound in the world, (and) if I reach my goal, then my goal will be reached," St-Pierre said. "There will be no point for me to still compete because I’m not going to have a goal left."Josh Koscheck is his next opponent, as the two will fight after the upcoming season of "The Ultimate Fighter" airs. Assuming that he wins that, he will likely face the winner of Thiago Alves and Jon Fitch. GSP has already beaten all three of those fighters. Assuming that Silva keeps his belt after fighting Chael Sonnen in August and that Silva stays at middleweight, the logical step for both fighters would be to face each other, but with a win over Silva, should a fighter like GSP retire? In a word: yes. Between his endorsements, sponsorships and fight purses, GSP has more than enough money to live well. He’s a smart, eloquent man who can find plenty of work in commentating and representing MMA in his home country of Canada.But beyond concerns about GSP’s financial security, without a real challenge, why would he keep fighting? He has cleaned out the division. He beat the king of the UFC’s welterweight division, Matt Hughes, twice. Both times that he faced B.J. Penn, GSP won. Now, he has to fight welterweights that he has already defeated.He is young — just 29 years old — but without a real challenger on the horizon, why should he keep fighting? It would be better to see a champion like GSP go out on his own terms than hold on for too long, and get knocked out three times in a row. AndreReynolds
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When I moved into my new home, I spent a little time on reconnaissance for somewhere to train for climbing.
I initially thought a fingerboard would be the way to go. However, all the doorways were flimsy stud walls and not sturdy enough.
An alternative jumped out – Rock Rings by Metolius. If only I could find [...]Wakeboarding
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Eat your heart out Alistair Overeem. Dutch soccer player Nigel De Jong may have a future in the cage (0:39 mark). He’s lucky he didn’t force his team to play 10 versus 11 for the final 60-plus minutes of the match. Great form though! Kickboxing is a favorite sport in Holland. The victim, Xavi Alonso, was not impressed with De Jong’s technique. De Jong is currently a player for pro boxer Ricky Hatton’s favorite team, Manchester City. Tip via GawkerChadMuska
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Dudes from Atlanta find a good time in Columbia South Carolina. I never skated any decent spots when I would visit my grandmother down there. That was a long time ago…kayaking
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Girl and Product (Red) have teamed up to fight Aids in Africa through an art show this Saturday, July 31st at the Andrew Shire Gallery in Los Angeles with work from Eric Anthony, Hershel Baltrotsky, Jeremy Carnahan, Michael Coleman, Even Hecox, Andy Jenkins, Jordan Mitchell, Christian Morin, Andy Mueller, and Chris Waycot plus Lance Bangs Photography, Original Product (RED) artworks, Mike Carroll (RED) Special Edition Deck Premiere, Limited Edition Artist Silkscreen Prints, and Product (RED) Video Shorts.
Are you on Twitter? Facebook? And do you follow MMA on those sites? If so, you’re not alone. According to USA Today and the Chicago Sun-Times, the UFC is only outpaced by the NBA in its social-marketing savvy. This means that the UFC and the individual fighters are available to fans on a level unlike many other sports. If you send Dana White a question or complaint on Twitter, you have a good shot at getting a response. (Possibly, a profanity-laced response.) Take a picture with a fighter, and your picture may end up on the UFC Facebook.There are drawbacks to that level of access, however. Shane Carwin, a fighter who often responds to fans and media on Twitter, was criticized when he pulled back on media before his fight with Brock Lesnar.Still, the UFC is a pioneer in making their fighters available via Twitter and Facebook. At its fighter summit last fall, the UFC encouraged fighters to get on Twitter and start reaching out to fans. For a holiday gift, fighters on the Zuffa roster were given Flip Cams so that they could start using the cameras to send out quick pictures and videos on Twitter.The efforts have clearly paid off, because though it has far smaller revenues than the NFL and MLB, the UFC was quick to understand the power of social media. This will only help it catch up with the big boys of sports in time. Speaking of social media fun, follow Cagewriter on Facebook and Cofield and me on Twitter. Sandboarding
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Frank Shamrock has always seemed a little wiser than his brother. The younger Shamrock retired last month while Ken Shamrock is still fighting because he needs the money. The results are now one-sided embarrassing losses for the UFC Hall of Famer. This is commonplace in boxing where it’s nearly impossible to make older fighters see the light and retire. Now that MMA has been around for nearly 20 years, you had to expect the same scenario to unfold. But there’s always some promoter willing to put a fighter who is a broken down, shell of himself in the cage to make a buck.That’s where Ken is now. He’s lost 8-of-10 fights dating back to 2002. Over the weekend in Australia, the 46-year-old took on another aging fighter in Pedro Rizzo. He had his hat handed to him in less than four minutes. Shamrock (27-14-2) down on one knee, begging for stoppage (1:38 mark) is not the way you want to remember the former UFC heavyweight champ.He chose to stand the entire time with Rizzo, who has tree trunks for legs. Rizzo (19-9) started the devastation early with inside leg kicks and then blasted away with more big kicks to the outside of Shamrock’s lead leg. It only took 11 kicks total to finish the fight. We’re not going to shred Shamrock because everyone is entitled to make a buck. None of us want to be in a position of having to work when we’re not capable of doing so but commissions around the world need to step up and tell him he’s not fit to fight any longer. AndyMacDonald
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The Cagewriter Facepalm of the Week returns not with a full out smack to the head, but with a "Well, DUH!" to the Strikeforce former light hevayweight champion, Gegard Mousasi. If you remember, Mousasi lost his belt to Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal due to Lawal’s superior wrestling ability.Saturday, Mousasi will face Jake O’Brien, also a fighter with a wrestling background. Mousasi said he has worked on takedown defense. From Thursday’s press conference, via MMAFighting.com: I’ve been working on wrestling aside from MMA. That is something that I wasn’t doing in the past so I’m getting more confident in my wrestling. I learned that I didn’t know a lot about takedowns, it’s a really big gap and I’m catching up and learning a lot. I’m confident in my takedown defense this time a lot more than in my last fight.That’s fantastic, Gegard. But maybe the time to work on takedown defense was before you fought the guy who was a national team member in freestyle wrestling? BobBurnquist
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Savannah Skates has a full Garret Olinger check out. EilssaSteamer
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Every guy’s favorite piece of exercise equipment, Shake Weight, has arrived on the MMA scene. Not really. But one jokester posted a GIF of heavyweight powerhouse Shane Carwin using Shake Weight. As "Saturday Night Live" pointed out, it seems like a product that might be more appropriate for an MMA spokesperson on the female side.MikeJones
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Ending out the week of Plus leftovers is Timmy Thompson.MikeValley
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Chael Sonnen has had nothing but nice things to say about fellow middleweight Vitor Belfort. Of course, he was also using Belfort as a prop in his massive trash-talking campaign against UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva. That should all change after the latest comments from Team Belfort, especially trainer Shawn Tompkins. After five months of downtime following shoulder surgery, Belfort is back in Las Vegas readying for his next fight at TapouT Training Center. Who will he fight next? It sounds like there’s little doubt, it’ll be Silva. From the Las Vegas Sun: "Nothing against Chael, but I think he talks better than he fights," Tompkins said. "Anderson is the man and we want to beat that man. I’ll be front row (at UFC 117) studying both of them because that’s my job. I think Chael will talk himself into the fight but, ultimately, Anderson will knock him out."Sonnen has said on several occasions that he wants to fight the best in the division at some point and that’s Belfort. Tompkins knows it’s all part of Sonnen’s bluster."I think Chael will try to pick a fight, but that’s the only way he becomes popular or famous because we all know he’s a boring fighter. "Anderson is the man and we want to beat that man. I think that fight would mean a little more to us. And honestly, go ask the fans who they want to see fight. It’s Anderson and Vitor."Belfort’s been waiting for this one, for a while. As pointed out by Brett Okamoto of the Las Vegas Sun, the Silva-Belfort fight has been dumped three times. Silva couldn’t fight at UFC 108 and 109 after elbow surgery and then Belfort’s shoulder nixed the potential battle at UFC 112.The Sonnen-Silva prefight and fight should be dynamite, but if the champ rolls to a win, a fight against the fellow Brazilian Belfort will be a mega-fight as well. Belfort isn’t into trash talk and hyping things but there should be good banter between Tompkins and Silva’s manager Ed Soares.ErinJackson
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It’s not enough for Bob Reilly to spread this silly anti-MMA argument around his budget-crunched state of New York. Now Reilly is being leaned on as some sort of voice of reason worldwide. The New York Assemblyman joined The Telegraph’s Gareth A. Davies in a spirited debate on BBC radio. Not surprisingly, Reilly is now shamelessly throwing the recent death of MMA rookie Michael Kirkham into his argument. "Violence begets violence. To us, we can’t imagine putting people in a cage, sometimes literally fighting to the death," said Reilly. "Because a fighter was tragically killed a week ago in South Carolina. To put two men in a cage or two women in a cage and let them fight until one is dead, is not something for a civilized society."Davies promptly fired back pointing out that it’s just the second death in the history of MMA and added that Kirkham’s parents spoke recently, and the last thing they want is their son used as a pawn in Reilly’s publicity stunt. "’He was following his dream. We hope that this doesn’t become an argument for trying to ban a sport that Michael loved,’" said Davies, relaying the Kirkham’s message. "’He would not have wanted his name used for that purpose."Reilly pins an uptick in violence amongst youth on the rise of MMA. "What is omitted, by almost everyone, is that this is a brutal sport," said Reilly. "In the U.S., we are trying to combat brutality in our schools. We have a huge problem of domestic violence. We have a huge problem with inner city kids with guns and violence."Pretty outrageous stuff. But Reilly has the ear of way too many folks in the state of New York and maybe many worldwide. It would seem to me that MMA, a sport fighting with rules and requiring strict discipline and dedication, is the least of the problems to address for folks who are trying to battle rising crime rates. ErikRuck
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by Michael David SmithOn Saturday I praised K-1 announcers Michael Schiavello and Mike Kogan for their candor in calling the recent Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Kazuhisa Watanabe fight, a fight that wasn’t on par with the caliber of kickboxing that fans have come to expect from K-1.
Now Miyata has responded, and he’s not pleased with being called out.
“K-1 USA’s commentator Mike Kogan insulted me,” Miyata wrote on his blog, as translated by MMA Fighting’s Japan correspondent, Daniel Herbertson. “He knows me but he’s still saying these kinds of things about me?” Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | CommentsLayneBeachley
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homes Working over your anger problem needs to go deeper than just applying certain anger management techniques in different situations. The most important part of your success with your fight with anger is changing the way you think about things. Hence the most important anger management techniques you need to learn are the anger management techniques that change the way you think. Regardless do you express your anger externally or do you suppress it deep inside, you need to change the way you think in order to control your anger fully.
juegos carreras Get a punching bag or something else soft that you can hit – If your anger starts to well up and overcome you to the point where you are enraged then you may want to invest or find an inanimate object that you can hit when you become enraged. You don’t have to spend any money on this, a simple pillow will do. If you want a punching bag may work as well or even one of those blow up punching bags that are out there for children.
real estate investing How to initiate anger management for children?
The first step towards anger management for children most definitely needs to be taken by parents. And the first thing to implement will be rectifying your own behaviour and avoid creating unpleasant situations in front of your child, which is very important. The next thing is to stop reprimanding your child for the smallest of mistakes and then learn to cope with your own mental stress and negative behaviour so that you can set an example for your child. The anger management strategies for children will prove to be effective before your child reaches adolescence so start implementing at the earliest.
Anger management techniques
The foremost technique of anger management for children is unconditional love; calm the child when he/she gets stubborn, irritable or throws tantrums. Do not admonish the child as that might worsen the situation, so give that extra attention, hugs and kisses. Engage the children in some constructive activities; indoor or outdoor games, brain games, video games etc will help the child to channelize their energy into something more meaningful. Brain games specially designed for children will help them to be occupied and enhance their mental health.
Forgive the one who has made you angry! It is absolutely unrealistic to expect everyone to behave exactly as you want. Forgive the same way as you forgive yourself! Forgiving others gives you great freedom. This can release you from your anger and make you a better person.
Forgiveness is probably the strongest approach that can change our thinking and help anyone face anger in a mature way.
I strongly believe you deserve to live a happy and abundant life. But this is the anger-free life. Get your anger under your control — this is possible You can be published without charge. You can to republish this article in your website or blog. Please provide links Active.
Do you think you’re somebody that struggles a good deal with nervousness during tense scenarios? This might be determined by the type of person you are in general when it comes to how you react throughout high demand moments. For most, this is very negative for their overall health and well-being. Panic isn’t a straightforward illness to cope with and one that you will certainly need to get under your control as best you can. For many individuals, prescribed drugs aren’t the perfect alternative due to possible dangers as well as unwanted side effects. If this sounds like something you might be concerned with, you may want to look at Purecalm reviews and recommendations from people that have been taking this kind of non-addictive plant based anxiety therapy.
There are several pure things that possess soothing results and tend to be very popular to ease stress and reduce anxiousness. Several typical natural components and the ones that are in fact present in the Native Remedies alternative mentioned previously, include lemon balm, lavender and passion flower.
Lemon Balm is an herb that could be found around the globe. This particular herb has been used as far back as the Middle Ages to help you with sleeping concerns, alleviate soreness, gas, and bloating caused by indigestion, enhance a person’s appetite and assist in lowering panic and tension. During present day times and in the PureCalm remedy described in this article, lemon balm is employed in combination with other calming herbal treatments to help aid in relaxation.
Lavender can be found all over the world however some of the best is available from the Mediterranean region. Lavender is recognized for alleviating the common symptoms of sleeplessness, basic anxiety and stress, severe headaches along with other physical pains. Lavender may be included in a formula that is consumed orally or as an essential oil found in popular aromatherapy products. Taking lavender or remedies such as the above which contain this particular relaxing botanical herb may most surely assist when it comes to decreasing a person’s tension level overall.
A final main ingredient present in the Pure Calm remedy and something that is very popularly used to help lessen strain, pressure and anxiety is the passion flower. This is a plant that’s usually present in southeastern North America as well as much of Europe. Passion flower has had calming effects on the symptoms of insomnia, anxiousness as well as associated nervous disorders. As is the case with most therapeutic herbs, Passion flower may be taken as a tincture, liquid extract, infusion or in tea.
If a person suffers from panic disorder and other severe symptoms of anxiousness, of course you need to first and foremost get yourself a medical diagnosis from your regular medical doctor. Herbal treatments can be effective and safe, however for many people, additional recommended drugs might be necessary to get rid of severe outcomes caused by panic, tension and anxiousness. If you’re going through mild cases of distress and you feel that they are most surely stressed induced and situational, an herbal cure might be just the answer that you’ll require.
Certainly seek information online and visit with general all natural experts if you have them available to you in your area. With some education and the right remedy, you may be back to your old peaceful self again right away!
Genius! It looks like the filmmakers didn’t have a full clip ready for the upcoming ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ ready for Comic Con, but to me this is better. Then again, I can’t get enough Johnny Depp, especially as Captain Jack Sparrow- LOL.
What do you think: are you looking forward to the fourth installment or are you over the franchise?
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I am a person who has often felt unhappy with the hand of cards that I have been dealt; especially when going through the teenage years. Many people commented at how down and depressed I often would be.
For those of you who may be pondering what issues I had at the time here is a brief description. I had a stutter which had affected me from the age of four. Stuttering put a huge dent in my confidence and made me withdraw into my shell.
I had a weight problem which was mainly caused by comfort eating when I was depressed. Since birth, I have had a bald patch on my head, it is not a large area of baldness, however it was big enough for people to notice and mock me. I was always the shortest person in the class and for a male I am well below the average height at five-foot four. I have struggled in my career originally offering sex selection services however I am now doing well offering aloe vera shampoo which is very popular due to being paraben free.
When I was aged about 18 I enjoyed an evening out with one of my best friends called John. John was one of the people I had always been jealous of for many different reasons. During the night John, after drinking copious amounts of alcohol, started to become quite upset and some what emotional. During our conversation he told me that his father was an alcoholic and that at certain times when he arrived home worse for wear that he would hit his mom. He was very worried about this and was not sure what to do.
I have learnt that we all have problems and that in most cases there is always people worse off than ourselves. I now try to think in a much more positive way and am very happy with the cards I have been dealt.
Taking a break from filming their new films titled LOL and Machine Gun Preacher respectively, actors Demi Moore and Gerard Butler showed up at Rockstarz Karaoke Bar & Grill in Detroit, MI last week to do a bit of drinkin’ and singin’ with the fine folks in the Motor City. Here are a few photos [...]Ahmet Zappa
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Bree Turner
The producer reveals he’s in pre-production on pop star’s LP; Darkchild also teases Gaga-esque ‘hits’ for Spears, in new online video.By James Dinh
Britney Spears
Photo: Jeremy Cowart/ WireImage
Britney Spears has kept quiet since wrapping up her Circus Tour, a 97-date extravaganza that took her around the world last year. But according to some of the producers helping to prep her next album, it won’t be long before we hear from the pop star again. In fact, a musical storm is brewing, and producer/songwriter Danja told Rap-Up TV of what to expect from Spears’ next project.
“We’re getting things together,” Danja revealed. The pair have collaborated on Spears’ last two LPs, and Danja is the man responsible for giving Brit her comeback single “Gimme More.” “I’ve actually been doing tracks that I love, and I can’t wait to go into full production mode, but more or so [we're in] pre-production than anything,” he said.
Asked what direction the pop princess’ material will take, the producer said it was hard to tell; things tended to be unpredictable in the studio.
“We can start one way and end up a totally different way, I really don’t know,” Danja told Rap-Up TV. “I’m definitely gonna do my part and try to make it hard-hitting, uptempo, high-energy. That’s what I think we need and that’s what I’m gonna shoot for.”
While Danja has worked with the likes of Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado, the producer revealed that the chemistry between him and Spears is “so easy and fun.” “It’s one of the easiest — probably the easiest — sessions I’ve had in my career, so I’m looking forward to getting back in,” he gushed.
And after all the commotion that erupted after Spears’ demo version of Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” leaked online, it’s maybe not surprising that Darkchild is also onboard for the singer’s next album. The hitmaker, who penned and produced the Gaga/Beyoncé smash, took to Ustream last week to tease some of the tracks he’ll soon be presenting to Britney and her people.
“In a minute, I’m going to play some music that I think is the bomb for Britney,” says Darkchild, who’s also known for crafting much of Brandy’s catalog. “What I think is [some] incredible stuff for Britney. I’m gonna start with my meetings in a couple of weeks and start playing these records for them, for her and her team.
“Hopefully, you know, she’ll get these hits and not let anyone else get ‘em and keep ‘em for herself. Y’know what I mean,” he said seemingly referring to Spears’ decision to pass on “Telephone,” which, of course, later went on to become another megahit for Lady Gaga.
In May, Darkchild talked about creating new music for the singer, declaring that he would “write an international smash for her new album.” No release date for Spears’ album has been announced.
Are you excited that Britney seems to be at work already on her new album? Tell us in the comments!
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New castmembers Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo join the director and entire cast, including Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans at Marvel panel.By Kara Warner
Mark Ruffalo and Joss Whedon at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty
SAN DIEGO — The biggest story to come out of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con was undeniably Marvel’s announcement of “The Avengers” cast lineup. Fans were already overcome by news that fanboy favorite Joss Whedon would helm the film, but on Saturday, the Marvel Studios panel sent Con-goers into a frenzy, as the entire principal cast — Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner — waltzed out onstage to uproarious applause.
When MTV News caught up with Whedon, the man of the Con, at the Entertainment Weekly/ SyFy event Saturday night, the director said he was still amazed at the crew he’d assembled, and equally surprised that they all showed up to be part of the big reveal in San Diego.
Ty Pennington
Usher
Vince Gill
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Amanda Righetti
I just finished Bill Clegg’s Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man.
Wow. Riveting. I had to close the book at times because I couldn’t bear to continue reading. I wanted to scream, “No, Bill! Don’t do it! Put down the pipe!”
For those of you who don’t know, Bill Clegg is a New York literary agent who became addicted to crack. Portrait of an Addict is his memoir. I hope my agent doesn’t start doing crack. For more about the book, visit the official website.
Anywho, I’m going to blog more often about the books I’m reading. But I’m going to wait until I finish them to do so because I’d say for every ten books I buy, I start seven and finish three. This has less to do with the quality of the book and more to do with my lack of an attention span. I get bored really easily, so if a book doesn’t move forward quickly, I’m out.Kelly McDonald
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Lindsay Davenport
Lindsay Hartley
