Yesterday the IFL’s newest executive addition, former Showtime boxing producer Jay Larkin, held a media conference call to discuss the goings-on in the IFL. As most of the readers of this blog know, I am employed by the IFL. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t spent much of the past year getting frustrated [...]
Entries from October 2007
October 30, 2007
UFC, White to Hold Another Press Conference Today
The UFC has announced that they will hold yet another press conference at 4 pm EST today – this one to be streamed live on UFC.com – and Zuffa co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta will join UFC president Dana White to address statements made by Randy Couture last week. I don’t know about the rest of [...]
October 29, 2007
Pithy Thoughts For a Monday Morning
The new edition of my weekly column is live at Crave Online . It focuses, naturally, on the issue of the moment regarding Dana White and Randy Couture. While I thoroughly enjoyed the back and forth between these two last week, I’m still baffled by some of White’s comments. Did he really [...]
October 26, 2007
Dueling Press Conferences: Dana White vs. Randy Couture
When Dana White announced that he would hold a press conference on the same day as the one already announced by departed UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture, it wasn’t hard to see what he had in mind. When he scheduled his media conference call to begin just thirty minutes before Couture’s Las Vegas media [...]
October 25, 2007
TUF Boosted By Best Fight of the Season
This week’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter was undoubtedly the best so far of season six, primarily because for the first time it spent a significant portion of the show on the actual fight. Team Serra’s Ben Saunders and Team Hughes’ Dan Barrera put on quite a show, even if the ending was a tad [...]
October 24, 2007
It’s Official: Liddell-Silva at UFC 79
The long-awaited match between former UFC champion Chuck Liddell and former Pride champion Wanderlei Silva will finally take place in December, UFC president Dana White announced at last night’s Spike TV Scream 2007 award show.
One can only assume that pressure from Spike, which is the UFC’s cable TV home, led to the announcement (deemed a [...]
October 23, 2007
In A Posh Manhattan Loft, Fedor Meets the U.S. Media
A strange thing happened last night. Through some twist of fate, I found myself sitting in fashion designer Marc Ecko’s posh 23rd Street loft, surrounded by other members of the MMA media, sitting just a few feet from Fedor Emelianenko.
Now that I think about it, strange doesn’t quite explain the situation. Bizarre is [...]
October 22, 2007
Championship Questions Abound for the UFC
Anderson Silva’s title defense at UFC 77 on Saturday night got me thinking. The fight was one-sided from the beginning, but it was a satisfying event nonetheless mainly because a championship belt was at stake. That makes everything more interesting. Even if it seems like a mismatch (the way Franklin-Quarry was, or the way St. [...]
October 21, 2007
Silva Looks Flawless at UFC 77
Anderson Silva isn’t just the best middleweight in the UFC. He’s an artist. He has so many different weapons at his disposal, it must be hard for him to choose which to employ from one moment to the next.
Just ask Rich Franklin, who began last night with high hopes for winning [...]
October 19, 2007
Fun With Betting Odds for UFC 77
So you say you have some disposable income and you don’t know what to do with it? You’re looking for a good time this Saturday night and you’re tired of helping that one stripper at the Foxxx Club “work her way through college”, especially now that it’s been like six years and you’re starting [...]
October 18, 2007
The Ultimate Fighter Is Starting To Make Me Feel Bad About Myself
I defend The Ultimate Fighter almost every chance I get, and it isn’t easy. But the most recent episode really tested my limits. It really made me take a look at the man in the mirror, if you know what I’m saying. Oddly enough, this dark moment of mine didn’t come as [...]
October 18, 2007
UFC 77 Picks and Predictions on CBS Sports
At CBS Sports you can now read what your favorite MMA writers have to say about UFC 77. Did any of us have the stones to pick Rich Franklin, you ask? Well, no. But we do come up with some fairly good insights between the four of us.
It’s as if each of [...]
October 17, 2007
The Gatekeeper Stigma
Fighting is a tough way to make a living. Most of us who aren’t pro fighters probably already suspected as much. Aside from the physical requirements, I’ve always thought that the hardest part must be the unsympathetic nature of the fight game. There’s only room for one champion in each weight class, [...]
October 16, 2007
With Addition of Ryo Chonan, UFC 78 Gets A Little Better
When the UFC announced that the main event for UFC 78 (entitled “Validation”, in case you were wondering, but you weren’t) would be the bout between Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping, I was the first to make idle threats about not paying to see it. While I still don’t believe this fight constitutes a [...]
October 16, 2007
Arona Denies M-1 Contract Rumors, Says He May Sign in December
Ricardo Arona is denying widespread rumors that he has signed with the M-1 organization to fight Fedor Emelianenko in December, according to an MMANews.con translation of an article in Tatame magazine. While he doesn’t rule out the possibility that he may sign in the coming months, he doesn’t seem intent on that contract being with [...]
