Nick Diaz

I will be 26 in a few months and I’m already feeling ancient. You see, “back in my day”, when you participated in a sport you didn’t get to choose your opponents, nor could you back out of a matchup against your friends.

Rashad Evans initially refused to fight his friend Jon Jones, but recently reversed his decision when confronted with Jones’ professionalism.

Now from Strikeforce, welterweight champion Nick Diaz and lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez both say they won’t fight their friends. Why not? Refusing to fight people they like is detrimental to mma being taken seriously by the general public as a legitimate sport. It makes it look like a bunch of neanderthals settling grudges. (Michael Bisping’s recent antics after his last fight didn’t help this perception, but that’s for another day.) How can we convince New York’s legislators that this is a legitimate sport if friends won’t fight friends?

When you play a game of pickup football or 2-on-2 basketball, you think nothing of beating your friends. In fact, that’s all you wanna do! You sit down to play some video games with your besties. Are you gonna tank it because you don’t wanna defeat your friends? You get together for a night of poker with your pals, do you refuse to take their money? Of course not! It’s a game, that’s the object – it’s the whole point!

So how is mma any different from any other sport? It was once reported that Serena Williams was ordered by her father to lose when playing tennis against her sister Venus. That seems to have changed, but I don’t recall either ever refusing to play the other. Can you imagine?

In a hockey game in 1984, Mark Hunter of the Montreal Canadiens attacked Dale Hunter of the Quebec Nordiques because Dale was beating on Mark’s teammate. Both men were enforcers for their respective teams and it was their job to protect their teammates. So they fought. The surname is not a coincidence – Mark and Dale are brothers. They didn’t hate each other. They weren’t angry at each other. They were simply doing the job they were paid to do and the job the fans paid to see. It’s ironic, maybe, that in a game of hockey, two guys can set aside their personal relationships and focus on their job of beating the shit out of each other, while in the game of fighting, two guys can’t touch each other.

So what makes mma fighters so special that they feel they don’t have to do their job and get in the cage with the opponent the fans want to see? You keep saying it’s the greatest job in the world, so do your job and stop treating it as anything more or less than a sport.

The Super Fight
Anderson Silva retained his Middleweight Championship at UFC 126, fanning the fires of anticipation over the possibility of a “super fight” between himself and Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre.

UFC president Dana White confirmed that if St-Pierre should successfully defend his belt against challenger Jake Shields on April 30, the UFC would indeed set up a match between the two dominant fighters.

The UFC later confirmed that the super fight will not happen if Shields wins the title. The whole point of the super fight is that it would pit two virtually undefeated champions against each other – two fighters who are interchangeable at the top of most people’s pound for pound rankings. If Shields wins, GSP would drop way down on that list.

Uncle Dana also confirmed that once Georges makes the move to 185, he will stay there. Which begs the question, what of the welterweight belt? Would it immediately be vacated? Imagine for a moment that St-Pierre retains his belt at UFC 129. Sometime in the future, Silva and St-Pierre could fight for the middleweight belt on the same card that two top contenders fought for the vacated welterweight belt. GSP could hand it over.

Or, maybe GSP would keep the belt and possibly be the first UFC fighter to simultaneously hold a belt in two weight divisions, should he beat Silva.

Fat Rampage
At UFC 126, Jon Jones was announced as the next challenger for the Light Heavyweight Championship, due to an injury to scheduled contender Rashad Evans. Current champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua made it known afterwards that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson had first been offered the fight, but turned it down. He intimated that Rampage had used phony excuses to get out of a fight he didn’t really want.

But Rampage has only just begun training for a scheduled fight on May 28 and is still packing around Christmas weight. The championship fight takes place in only six weeks. As Jackson has stated, most of that time would be dedicated to losing the extra weight and not enough time would be put in to actually training for his opponent.

Jones, on the other hand, had just fought Ryan Bader, finishing him in the second round. He was not injured and was obviously in fight shape. In the post-fight press conference, he informed the media that he would actually be taking a few days off before going back and beginning to train for Rua.

While I personally believe that fighters should always be training and ready to fight at a moment’s notice, I know that is not always the case. For Jackon’s part, he does want to fight Shogun, but he wants to get in the cage at as close to 100% as possible. I don’t blame him. Only an idiot enters a title fight unprepared.

“Rashanda” Evans
I like Rashad Evans. I do. But his announcement this week that, if his friend Jon Jones should defeat Mauricio Rua, Evans would either drop to middleweight or go up to heavyweight, to avoid fighting his friend, is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard.

This is a sport. In no other sport does someone decline to compete against a friend. What would happen if Serena Williams refused to challenge her sister Venus in a tennis match? Six Sutter brothers played in the NHL back in the day. At no time did they all play for the same team, which means <gasp!> they had to play each other!

Matthew Barnaby and Rob Ray are like best friends, but they were the enforcers on their respective hockey teams. It was not unusual for them to have dinner together, then face off against each other on the ice, then go out for beers afterwards. The irony there is that, when they fought on the ice, it was because they were pissed off at each other. But this is mma – you don’t have to be mad at your opponent, you just need to defeat him. So why can’t you fight your friend?

By refusing to fight a friend, I believe it actually hurts mma in terms of being considered a sport. Too many people still think of mma as “human cockfighting”. In that context, it’s totally understandable that you wouldn’t want to fight your friend. But as a sport, there is absolutely nothing wrong with beating up your friend, because that is the object of the game. Just like taking all your friend’s money is the object of poker.

Strikeforce Tournament
This Saturday marks the beginning of Strikeforce’s much-ballyhooed heavyweight tournament. When it was first announced, I admit I was not as excited about it as I maybe should have been. I’m not a big fan of heavyweights anyway, but that’s not why. When I looked at the matchups, they just didn’t make sense to me.

For one thing, I didn’t understand why the current champion should have to fight in a tournament. Shouldn’t he fight the winner of any tournament?

But okay, so Alistair Overeem – the current champion – could get knocked out in the first round. Fine. But if he should make it to the second round, he could possibly face the top uncrowned heavyweight in Fedor Emelianenko. In the second round? Shouldn’t that be the fight we look forward to as the finalé?

Okay, so we take these two anomalies and accept them as we do. But, what about the belt? I mean, if Overeem should lose at any point in the tournament, how can he keep his belt? At one point, it came out that every match the champion was involved in would be a five-round title fight, meaning the belt could conceivably change hands as many as three times during the tourney. I like that! That suddenly made the whole thing 100% more interesting to me.

But then the official announcement came that the title would definitely not be on the line during the tournament. The winner of the tournament would fight Overeem at a later date. Which brings us back to, why is Overeem in the tournament? If he wins the whole thing, he can’t fight himself. And whomever he defeated to win the tournament would be the next contender, but he wouldn’t be eligible since he was just defeated by Overeem.

Is Strikeforce banking on Overeem losing one of these fights? The way they banked on Dan Henderson taking the title from Jake Shields?

This tournament showed a lot of promise and I believe the way it has been configured is only hurting Strikeforce. Believe me, I want to see Strikeforce succeed in all that they do, and many of their ideas are great, but too many are poorly executed.

And despite my reservations over those aspects of this tournament, I can’t help but look forward to this weekend, when we will see “The Last Emperor” take on “Bigfoot” (Antonio Silva), as well as the hopeful return of one-time UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski fighting against veteran up & comer Sergey Kharitonov.

Josh Barnett, three-time loser

Soooooo … Josh Barnett withdrew his licencing appeal from the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) this week. All they want from him is a clean drug test. Hmmm….

Other states are saying they won’t licence him if he doesn’t get licenced in California, which means he cannot fight in the United States.

In order to get around this, the word on the street is that his bout in the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament will be held at an event in Japan.

That’s all fine and good if Strikeforce is counting on him to get defeated, but what do they do if he wins his fight? Schedule another event in Japan?

And doesn’t it strain an organization’s relationship with the state athletic commissions to essentially go behind their back in order to allow this cheater to fight?

How hard is it to submit a clean drug test? I could piss up a clean one right now, with no notice. You know why? I don’t do drugs! But this idiot has been appealing his licence for … a year and a half. How much notice do you need?

He has tested positive for steroids three times – more than any other fighter in mma history. How stupid is this guy? The first time it cost him a UFC championship belt, the second time an entire event was cancelled because of it and the third time he lost his licence. Okay, technically the third time was a re-test, on appeal.

But seriously. Why scream your innocence when you know you’re guilty and that the tests will prove it?

And how did Strikeforce get talked into signing a guy with this sort of history, who doesn’t even have a licence in their home state?

As dominant as he is, it may have been a mistake to have signed him up so hastily, before he got his licence back.

Notice: this is an opinion piece; it should not be regarded as a statement of fact.

Scott Coker, Strikeforce CEO

Strikeforce is a rising mma organization without a known face. Everybody knows when they see Dana White that they are going to hear about the UFC. But who is out there talking about Strikeforce?

We do not want to compare Strikeforce and the UFC. There is no comparison. One is dominant and the other is up and coming. And there is nothing wrong with either. The fact of the matter is, even UFC president Dana White has praised Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker in the past. “He puts on a good show and I think if you talked to his fighters about him, they’d all have good things to say.”

Our concern is that, while the UFC and other promotions have their head guy out in the media, Strikeforce leaves it all up to their fighters. Coker would have us believe it is because he wants the fighters in the spotlight and doesn’t believe the promoter needs to be there.

A fight is a fight. Some fights, such as Fedor Emelianenko vs Fabricio Werdum, don’t need any promotion. People are going to watch it because it’s Fedor, the top-ranked heavyweight in the world.

Other fights do need promotion. Sometimes the promotion is just to get the fight into people’s heads, to inform them there is a fight. Sometimes the promotion is to get people excited about a fight that, on paper, doesn’t look very entertaining. Chael Sonnen did a first class job promoting his title fight with Anderson Silva, resulting in a record number of pay-per-view buys for a fight that had zero appeal on paper.

But Chael Sonnen is an exception. Fighters do promote their own fights, but not all fighters are trash talkers. Georges St-Pierre was very quiet before his title fight against Josh Koscheck and only gave interviews when asked. He didn’t seek out the spotlight, as Koscheck did.

In the end, though, the fighters are fighters, not promoters. UFC and Strikeforce are promotions and Dana White and Scott Coker are the promoters. Dana White does his job as a promoter – maybe to the extreme. Scott Coker doesn’t want to take the spotlight off the fighters. He gives Don King as an example of a promoter who takes the spotlight off the fighters.

But I don’t think Don King flamboyance ever hurt Muhammed Ali or Mike Tyson. In fact, isn’t it the quieter fighters who need a guy like Don King to get out in front of the media? At the UFC’s post-fight press conferences, Dana White stands on guard for his fighters. He will not hesitate to throw one of his guys under the bus if he feels the fighter did not perform to the best of his ability (as he did with Anderson Silva after UFC 112). But he also will stand up for any guy he feels doesn’t deserve the criticism. He allows the fighters to take questions from the media, but he’s there to step in if a journalist steps out of line.

Where is Scott Coker? He doesn’t show up at weigh-ins. He’s not there for the press after the event. He’s not even in the cage to present the title belt. He leaves his fighters to fend for themselves. You may think that’s intuitive, what with them being fighters, but they are not necessarily media savvy. They need a buffer.

Aside from the fighters, fans are always curious to know what is going on with the company itself. Dana White makes himself available for interviews. All interviews. He could be classed as media-hungry. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing for the fans, who get to hear White’s words on their chosen outlet, rather than having to search out some obscure interview on some unknown website.

Sean Wheelock interviews Bjorn Rebney

Bellator’s Bjorn Rebney is often interviewed on weekly broadcasts, giving the viewer insight into the workings of the organization, previewing upcoming fights and fighters.

But Scott Coker seems to be MIA. It has been suggested that he hire someone to be the “face” of Strikeforce. This could only work if that person had all the inside knowledge that Coker himself has. Coker is CEO. Maybe he needs to hire a president to deal with the media side of things. The person would need to have full access to the goings-on behind the scenes, as well as the savvy to know what he can talk about and what he can’t.

Whether Scott Coker hires someone to be his “press secretary”, or he changes his tune and puts his own face forward, something needs to change at Strikeforce; they are doing everything right, but their media presence is practically nil.

Dan Henderson celebrates his knockout of Babalu Sobral; photo courtesy of sherdog.com

This past Saturday in St Louis, Missouri, STRIKEFORCE invaded with a fight card that could potentially deliver the heavy artillery of definitive finishes. And in four of the five fights on the main card, we were witnesses to perhaps four of the top ten mixed martial arts knockouts of all 2010. Some will argue that they were indeed the top four knockouts this year—all on one card!

Unfortunately, many fight fans had to choose between watching the UFC’s TUF 12 Finale or STRIKEFORCE.  If you were me, you flicked the channels back and forth between Showtime and Spike TV, hoping not to miss anything spectacular. It continues to be afflicting when the two top mixed martial arts organization have simultaneous live fight events. This should not happen.

The event marked the third time that STRIKEFORCE has put on an event in St Louis.  Each time has been quite successful, with an average attendance of over 8,000 fans.  Other than San Jose and Fresno, California, St Louis seems to have become their favorite location to host events. This has been fueled by many of the local fighters and gyms in the St Louis area, with local talent such as Jesse Finney and Tyronne Woodley priming fight fans for more  STRIKEFORCE events and fan participation.

RESULTS & ANALYSIS

Dan Henderson  vs.  Renato “Babalu”  Sobral
—Henderson[#8 mw] defeated Sobral via KO (Punches) at 1:53 of round 1

A rematch 10 years in the making, Henderson beats Sobral again, this time by vicious  ground and pound and an eventual knockout.  At age 40, the decorated mma star and international wrestling stalwart, Hendo is out to prove that he still has a lot left in the tank.  Last year, he won Knockout of the Year in mma.  And in 2007 at age 37, he won Fighter of the Year. The former UFC top contender at middleweight and light heavyweight, Henderson will receive strong considerations for a title in early 2011 against champion Rafael Cavalcante, who knocked out then champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal to win the title.

Paul Daley  vs.  Scott Smith
—Daley defeated Smith via KO (punch) at 2:09 of round 1

One guy that knows how to get the crowd behind him is England’s Paul Daley.  His ring entrance included wearing a pro baseball cap of the St. Louis Cardinals.  This was the fight that many fans coveted the most; two fighters who are known for the knockout power. This was perhaps the most brutal knockout of the night! The muay thai and boxing specialist, Daley continues to rack up Mike Tyson-like one-hitter-quitters to his opponents.  Short in stature, and very strong physically, he has a similar build.  Smith was caught with a quick left hook, that knocked him out unconscious before he hit the canvas face first.  Daley’s striking techniques looked improved, and after the fight he politely called out top welterweight contender KJ Noons. However, Noons is healing from injuries and might return as a lightweight.

Robbie Lawler  vs.  Matt Lindland
—Lawler defeated Lindland via KO (punches) at 0:50 of round 1

Matt Lindland, the 2007 Sydney Olympic Silver medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling picked the wrong guy to stand and bang with, as he quickly became the latest victim of Lawler’s rock hands that sent him flopping to the canvas.  Lindland was actually awakened from his hard fall to the canvas, quickly tried to recover, and instinctively tried to get in a defensive ground position, only to be met with a perfectly timed drop punch that knocked Lindland unconscious again.  At age 40, we’re left wondering if we’ve seen Lindland fight for the last time, losing 3 of his last 4 fights. As Lawler’s nickname indicated, that knockout was devastatingly “Ruthless!”

Antonio Silva  vs.  Mike Kyle
—Silva [#10 hw; #3 up & coming hw] defeated Kyle via TKO (punches) at 2:49 of round 2

Comeback of the Night award undoubtedly goes to “Big Foot” Antonio Silva.  If you’ve ever seen this guy fight, you’d find out that he’s perhaps the biggest-boned fighter in all of mixed martial arts! Kyle, a light heavyweight top contender stepped up and took this fight on less than 2 weeks notice.  At fight time, despite Kyle being a huge man himself, Silva probably outweighed him by over 50 pounds. Early in the fight, Kyle rocked Silva, sending the giant flopping down on his buttocks.  The fights looked very bleak for Silva in the 1st round.  Silva began to recover, and showed good cardio for such a large fighter.  Once Silva was able to mount Kyle in the 2nd round, you feared the worst for the smaller Kyle who had no defense for the powerful and looping ground and pound punches that rained down on him, eventually knocking Kyle unconscious. Silva, with hands the size of pro wrestling’s Andre The Giant, Kyle should feel lucky to come out of that finish with his career still in tact.

Benji Radach vs. Ovince St. Preux
—St. Preux defeated Radach via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-25)

The first fight of the main card; a fight between two relative unknown fighters.  The quiet before the storm; this fight shouldn’t have went the distance as OSP dominated the veteran Radach, pummeling and pounding him for 3 rounds as the numbers above indicate!  The fight became a snooze and fans booed, as the ref continued to allow the punishment and slowed action. A replacement fight on the main card when former NFL and Pro Bowl/All-star running back, Herschel Walker(48) came down with an injury.

There are not many bars in Chicago that show all of the STRIKEFORCE on Showtime events.  Click the link below, and take 2 minutes to sign up for free.  Enjoy STRIKEFORCE events with others, as well as receive drink discounts privy to members only.   It’s easy and fast to sign up.  Absolutely no obligations!

Chicago MMA & Boxing Fanclub of Chicago

Catch promising mixed martial arts prospect and Chicago native Louis Taylor fighting this Friday, August 13, 2010 at Strikeforce Challengers 10: Riggs vs. Taylor. This fight card will air live on Showtime (ShoMMA) at 11pm(ET). Read more »

“Cuddles” finds her next opponent

Jan Finney makes her Strikeforce debut this Saturday, June 26th.  She’s fighting the dominant featherweight champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos.

Finney has a rather lacklustre record of 8-7, but her record is misleading!  I’ve seen the Vegas spread as well as many comments on the various mma message boards.  No one is giving Finney a chance to compete, let alone win this matchup. I just want to point out that Strikeforce didn’t simply pluck someone from the amateur ranks to give Cris Cyborg a tune-up fight.

Finney’s losses have come against top competition.  She lost to wmma pioneer Shayna Baszler.  And she lost via overtime decision to Miesha Tate (referee decision).  As well, she lost to Erin Toughill after taking the fight to a decision. And 3 of her losses were to the same fighter. Read more »

Date: June 26, 2010 Location: San Jose, California Venue: HP Pavilion Broadcast: Showtime Time: 9pm (central-USA)

Read more »

The month of May has ended for fight fans, as we were treated to an assortment of elite and very intriguing match ups.  Both boxing and mma delivered this month in supplying us with something to watch almost every weekend and even during weekdays.

There was not a day this month that we weren’t bombarded with breaking news about the Rampage vs. Rashad match.   And the Floyd Mayweather vs. Shane Mosley fight was one of the most anticipated boxing match ups – probably since Mike Tyson’s heyday.

In the month of May 2010, this is the lineup of big fights that we enjoyed: Read more »

Strikeforce:  Heavy Artillery is a mixed martial arts event to be held by Strikeforce on May 15, 2010 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States at the Scottrade Center. The event will air live on Showtime in the United States and on Super Channel in Canada.

The St. Louis ‘Arch’

Mixed Martial Arts will be on display May 15th in the city they call “The Gateway To The Midwest” … St. Louis, Missouri. Read more »