Author: Ben Fowlkes

Falling Action: Best and Worst of the Weekend That Was

It may have been a weekend devoid of big time MMA, but there was still plenty of fight action of all stripes on the airwaves this past Friday and Saturday. Between an eight-man tournament, a promise to finish in exciting fashion, and some outrageous co…

It may have been a weekend devoid of big time MMA, but there was still plenty of fight action of all stripes on the airwaves this past Friday and Saturday. Between an eight-man tournament, a promise to finish in exciting fashion, and some outrageous color commentary, we have no shortage of things to talk about on Monday morning.

What do you say we comb through the wreckage and see who the big winners and losers are after this eventful weekend in MMA?

Biggest Winner: Drew Fickett
Winning the Shine Fights lightweight grand prix may not be the triumph of a lifetime for most fighters, but after the hard times Fickett has fallen on/brought upon himself, it’s at least a break in the clouds. He beat three professional fighters in one night, all by first-round submission. Even if one of them was the eminently submittable Charles Bennett, it’s still impressive. Then again, the issue with Fickett has never been a lack of talent. Hopefully he’s had enough self-destruction by now and can use his big night as a springboard to something greater. Might be time to send a tape of his tournament win to Strikeforce, along with an assurance that he’s not under contract anywhere else this time.

Jared Hamman Wonders, What Do You Do with a $65,000 Check?

Filed under: UFCPeople kept telling him he’d won Fight of the Night, but Jared Hamman didn’t realize they were serious. It was nice to hear, and he appreciated the compliment. He knew his three-round slobberknocker with Rodney Wallace at UFC 111 had be…

Filed under:

People kept telling him he’d won Fight of the Night, but Jared Hamman didn’t realize they were serious. It was nice to hear, and he appreciated the compliment. He knew his three-round slobberknocker with Rodney Wallace at UFC 111 had been an entertaining one, but Fight of the Night? On the same card that featured guys like Georges St. Pierre and Shane Carwin? That didn’t sound right.

“I thought they were telling me like, basically, that was a really good fight,” Hamman (12-2) told MMA Fighting. “I was like, thanks, I appreciate that. They had to be like, ‘No, you really won the Fight of the Night bonus.’ I had to call my manager and ask him if it was true.”

And it was. After a fifteen-minute scrap with Wallace that sometimes resembled a blur of furious arms and legs roving around the Octagon like a contained tornado, Hamman won a unanimous decision victory and, as he would learn later in the night, a $65,000 bonus for Fight of the Night.

Shark Fights 13 Preview and Predictions

It’s not often you see a smaller organization put together a card with so many recognizable names, but Shark Fights has loaded them up for tonight’s Shark Fights 13 event in Amarillo, Texas. The lineup has plenty of names even the casual MMA fan will …

It’s not often you see a smaller organization put together a card with so many recognizable names, but Shark Fights has loaded them up for tonight’s Shark Fights 13 event in Amarillo, Texas. The lineup has plenty of names even the casual MMA fan will recognize from TV, like Keith Jardine, Houston Alexander, and Paul Daley. But it’s also got interesting prospects like Tarec Saffiedine and a hard-as-nails vet in Joey Villasenor.

In short, it’s not a bad night of action for what is otherwise an off weekend in MMA. Check below for a full preview and predictions for the pay-per-view card.

MMA Roundtable: Does an Eight-Man Tournament Trump UFC Castoffs?

Even if the UFC and Strikeforce are sitting this weekend out, that doesn’t mean there’s no MMA for us to overanalyze. In fact, there are at least three notable events in the next two days, leaving some of us with difficult choices to make.

With that i…

Even if the UFC and Strikeforce are sitting this weekend out, that doesn’t mean there’s no MMA for us to overanalyze. In fact, there are at least three notable events in the next two days, leaving some of us with difficult choices to make.

With that in mind, I pulled MMA Fighting’s Ray Hui away from more serious work in order to make him answer some questions I had running through my mind. Join us as we break down the weekend’s action, debate which pay-per-view to buy in a perfect world, and try to calculate the odds that Antonio McKee will wrestle his way into retirement.

Shine Fights is holding a one-night, eight-man unsanctioned tournament at an Indian casino on Friday night. That means the eventual winner will have to win three (unsanctioned) fights in one night. Awesome idea or horrible idea?

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Antonio?

It’s fitting that we’ve spent so much time discussing wrestlers and wrestling on MMA Fighting this week, since tonight marks the return of Antonio McKee in a fight that he claims could be his last.

According to McKee, who has unapologetically bored M…

It’s fitting that we’ve spent so much time discussing wrestlers and wrestling on MMA Fighting this week, since tonight marks the return of Antonio McKee in a fight that he claims could be his last.

According to McKee, who has unapologetically bored MMA fans from Tokyo to New Jersey throughout his 11-year career, if his fight with Luciano Azevedo at MFC 26 goes the same way almost all of his other fights have gone (i.e. resulting in a decision victory and an anaesthetized crowd) he’ll retire.

As he told me back in July: “I said, if this fight goes to a decision and it’s a boring decision, I retire. If this fight is not the fight of the night, I retire. Basically, if I don’t go out there and put on a show, just destroy and annihilate this guy, then I’m done.”

Why? Not because he doesn’t think he can compete anymore. He’s pretty sure he can not only compete, but more or less dominate any other lightweight on the planet, even at 40 years old.

No, he says he’ll quit because he’s been waiting for the sport to evolve, and, at least as far as he’s concerned, it hasn’t.

Shine Fights COO: Licensing Restriction for Shine Fighters a ‘Non-Issue’

Shine Fights COO Jason Chambers told MMA Fighting on Wednesday afternoon that neither he nor his fighters are terribly worried about the Oklahoma Athletic Commission’s threat to deny a license for the next 60 days to any man who competes in the non-san…

Shine Fights COO Jason Chambers told MMA Fighting on Wednesday afternoon that neither he nor his fighters are terribly worried about the Oklahoma Athletic Commission’s threat to deny a license for the next 60 days to any man who competes in the non-sanctioned event at the First Council Casino in Newkirk, Oklahoma this Friday night.

Despite the “major concerns” voiced by the commission’s director, Chambers insisted that every fighter is “exceedingly comfortable” with participating in the event on Otoe-Missouria Tribe land, and that all of them had been made aware of the potential consequences from the commission.

“We’ve communicated to them what’s been said, but that’s coming from second-hand information from the internet,” Chambers said. “Are we going to go tell them, the forums are saying you guys are going to have this or going to have that? Our matchmaker is very open with them and communicating with them. That’s a non-issue, the suspensions and stuff. They’re well aware of what the possibilities could be, absolutely.”