Author: admin

Male Slapping Championships — courtesy of Russia (of course) — is back in the news this morning after its previously undefeated champion, Vasily Kamotskiy, suffered the first loss of his career by way of violent, bloody knockout.

Rookie Vyacheslav Zezulya is now king of the beards.

Kamotskiy doubled over after taking one flush from Zezulya and had to be carried from the stage as handlers helped wiped blood from his face. Folks, I would take a full-blown cage fight over this lunacy any day of the week.

Here’s another look:

Ouch.

Russia is known for its bizarre (and sometimes unsettling) combat sports. My personal favorite is Team Fighting Championship (TFC), which is essentially a controlled gang rumble on what looks to be a converted tennis court.

At least it’s better than the universally-panned Akhmat Fight Club, which had children fighting — and knocking out — other children as crazed adults cheered in celebration.

Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images

Conor McGregor’s coach Owen Roddy is more confident about their preparations for the upcoming UFC 246 fight against Donald Cerrone.

Former UFC two-division champion Conor McGregor is set to make his return after a 15-month layoff at UFC 246 against Donald Cerrone. And striking coach Owen Roddy is more confident about their preparations now, compared to their camp for UFC 229 in October 2018, when “The Notorious” last fought.

“The training camp (for UFC 246) is structured way better,” Roddy said on a recent episode of MMAFighting’s EuroBash podcast. “The last camp was just a bit sporadic. We didn’t know what time we were training at. Sometimes it was very late at night, sometimes it was early in the morning and nobody really knew.

“Even though we were making all of these sessions, I don’t think that’s good for you when he doesn’t even know what time he’s going to train at, just doing it off feel. For the past couple of months it’s been very regimented.”

Roddy laid out some of the specifics of this camp, including the times of the day when they are training.

“We’re training at 11 and 7 every day,” he said. “We’re doing strength and conditioning, whether it’s in the morning or evening, and then doing a technical session and it’s perfect. And you can see that’s reaping the benefits and rewards already from that.

“As I said, he’s been working on his strength and conditioning for a while before he even came into this camp, so now we’re not spending half the camp trying to get in shape or anything like that.

“Now, he’s in tip-top shape and now we’re just focusing on the game plan – coming up with a good game plan and going in and executing it,” Roddy added.

UFC 246 will take place on January 18th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Photo by Brandon Magnus/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman, will step into the Octagon this Sat. night (Dec. 14, 2019) to defend his 170-pound strap against bitter rival and division No. 1 contender, Colby Covington.

They’ll headline the UFC 245 pay-per-view (PPV) event from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, a five-round affair that will afford “The Nigerian Nightmare” the opportunity to get payback for Covington’s EPO accusations.

“He kept saying that, and I’m like what is that?” Usman told MMA Fighting. “I didn’t know what that was, and then somebody explained to me what it was. I haven’t changed from my first professional fight to my last fight. I look the exact same because I put in the exact same amount of work each and every time. The only thing that changes are my skills, and that comes with the time spent honing my craft.”

Recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO) has been in the news over the last few years for getting several top names into hot water, including Chael Sonnen and TJ Dillashaw. The risk is worth the reward, according to Joe Rogan, because the return is so high.

“I understand why he’s doing it because he wants something to talk about to try and ruin someone’s name or identity or what not,” Usman said. “None of that is going to matter. At the end of the day, god willing, he steps into that cage, and when we hit each other for the first time, he’s going to understand that it’s different.”

Usman, it should be noted, has never failed a UFC drug test.

Chris Rini

“Dana White” tackles The Billion Dollar Bungle.

Chris Rini

Chris Rini

Chris Rini

Even in her departure from the UFC Liz Carmouche is a trailblazer: the first woman to be fired for being too good at fighting but not marketable enough to merit paying. She joins the pantheon of Jon Fitch, Yushin Okami, and Jake Shields.

Take care of yourself and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Chris

Llima-Lei Macfarlane prior to Bellator 178. | Photo by Williams Paul/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Bellator champion Macfarlane is eager to see her mentor sign up with the promotion

Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, the inaugural and current Bellator flyweight champion, is not shy in her praise of Liz Carmouche and describes her as, “my mentor and my main training partner and my coach through this entire journey.” This is why Macfarlane is hopeful that the reports are accurate and that Carmouche will be coming to Bellator. Perhaps more surprisingly, Macfarlane then repeatedly stated, “that’s who I would want to lose to.”

Macfarlane said the longtime training partners and friends had discussed Carmouche moving to Bellator “for years.” Now that the UFC has released the fighter, this shared dream is closer to reality.

The Bellator champion echoed the sentiments of many by saying, “I think she deserves better. I don’t think that her former employer respected her as a fighter or as a person.”

Carmouche, a Marine and Iraq War veteran, was doing promotional appearances in Washington, D.C. for the UFC when she learned she had been cut from the roster.

“I want her to come to Bellator. I want to lose the belt to her. I’m not overlooking (my next fight against) Kate Jackson at all or any of these other girls, but my dream would be to lose the belt to Liz,” Macfarlane told MMA Junkie.

She clarified, saying, “But don’t get me wrong, we would totally go out there to try to kill each other. It’s not like I’m just going to hand it over. People always ask me my dream fight, I’m like, ‘Liz.’”

Despite the clarification, Macfarlane’s comments sparked questions on social media. She then Tweeted, “Maybe should have prefaced it with “IF I were to lose the belt…”. I’ll work on my weird wording next time lol.”