(Forget money and fame – Phil was fighting back when the prize was a weird trophy and a semi-attractive Japanese chick. / Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)
When we learned that the match between UFC veteran Phil Baroni and 23-year-old pr…
(Forget money and fame – Phil was fighting back when the prize was a weird trophy and a semi-attractive Japanese chick. / Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)
When we learned that the match between UFC veteran Phil Baroni and 23-year-old prospect Brad Tavares would indeed be aired before the UFC 125 pay-per-view broadcast this Saturday, it reminded me of our last chat with the New York Bad Ass on episode 11.1 of the Bum Rush Radio Show. Baroni has reached that point in his career where youngsters are trying to make their names off of him, and he has to beat them if he wants his own name to retain its value. I asked Phil if he felt like the last in a bygone generation of fighters, considering that so many of his rivals are no longer competing. And I thought his response was worth sharing again…
(Images via MiddleEasy)
A year after Zuffa banned Hoelzer Reich as a fighter sponsor due to their uncomfortably Nazi-ish t-shirt designs, another apparel company is under scrutiny for a potentially offensive symbol. As first spotted by WRESTLENOW on th…
A year after Zuffa banned Hoelzer Reich as a fighter sponsor due to their uncomfortably Nazi-ish t-shirt designs, another apparel company is under scrutiny for a potentially offensive symbol. As first spotted by WRESTLENOW on the UG, Clay Guida appeared in a recent Fight! Magazine video wearing a Silver Star shirt featuring a totenkopf. Translated to "skull of a dead man," the totenkopf symbol has been used in the German military since the Prussian army of the 18th century, but it is most closely associated with the Nazi SS – especially the particular version shown above, in which the totenkopf is shown in half-profile – and is currently favored by Neo-Nazis.
(Marcus Davis and Ion: A match made in…convenience?)
Less than a week before UFC 125 goes down in Las Vegas, UFC president Dana White has revealed that there will be a "Prelims" broadcast before the pay-per-view card – good new…
(Marcus Davis and Ion: A match made in…convenience?)
Less than a week before UFC 125 goes down in Las Vegas, UFC president Dana White has revealed that there will be a "Prelims" broadcast before the pay-per-view card – good news, since it’s one of the most interesting undercards in recent memory. But it won’t be aired on Spike TV. For the first time, the UFC will put a broadcast on Ion Television, which is apparently cause for celebration, even though we only had a vague knowledge of the channel’s existence until this morning. Said Dana White: "These guys are considered a network. The FCC calls them a network. This is the first time we’ve ever been on network television, and the prelims are going to be aired. It’s a big deal. It’s in over 100 million homes."
Three fights will be scheduled for the broadcast – Marcus Davis vs. Jeremy Stephens, Josh Grispi vs. Dustin Poirier, and Phil Baroni vs. Brad Tavares – which is unprecedented in itself. "The prelims we do air, there’s only supposed to be two," White said. "Time-wise, it’s impossible to pull off three if they all go to the distance. I’m going to roll the dice on this thing. Not only are we going to bring the prelims to the fans, but everybody has been hammering me for the Phil Baroni-Brad Tavares fight, so I’m going to do three fights. I’m going to give them that fight, too."
(Props: densetsug via MiddleEasy. Match starts at the 2:01 mark)
UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman hasn’t competed in a legit MMA fight since he was choked out by Randy Couture at UFC 109. What you see above is Coleman performing in a worked MMA-styl…
UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman hasn’t competed in a legit MMA fight since he was choked out by Randy Couture at UFC 109. What you see above is Coleman performing in a worked MMA-style wrasslin’ match at the IGF Genome 13 event back in September against Shinichi Suzukawa (who will be appearing against Bob Sapp on the Dynamite!! 2010 card). The thing is, this particular work was supposed to be worked in Coleman‘s favor. We’ll let Phil Baroni tell the story:
"It was supppose to be a pro wrestling match. It was suppose to be 3 min. Coleman was suppose to win. The fat fucking douch scum bag didnt do the match the way it was suppose to be. That film was eddited. The Fat didck was suppose to tap from a head lock. He would not and kept rope escaping. Coleman squeezed hard a few times and burnt him self out trying to get the guy to tap.
UPDATE: Strikeforce has denied Craner’s story, and claims they have records of paying her for all her appearances and travel expenses.
Of all the ring girls that have come and gone in the employ of Strikeforce, Nicole Craner was one of the all-time gr…
Of all the ring girls that have come and gone in the employ of Strikeforce, Nicole Craner was one of the all-time greats. These days, the 29-year-old Idaho native holds cards for Shark Fights — which seems like a downgrade until you learn that Craner wasn’t getting paid at her old job. As she revealed on a recent episode of TUF Crap Radio:
“I think when you’re an organization like the UFC, they value their [Octagon] girls. They treat them well, they’re part of the family, and that’s something that I wanted to do with Strikeforce…With Strikeforce I can honestly say that I don’t think Scott Coker even knew my name. I don’t think he knew any of his ring girls’ names and I’ve never really talked about this before, but it came down to not getting paid; And for me, I treated it as a job and I put a lot of effort into it and when you’re not respected or valued enough, it makes you want to go somewhere else… So I mean you can pay Frank Shamrock 340,000 dollars to lose but you can’t pay your ring girl 400 bucks?…There were promises made that we were going to do contracts and that we were going to travel and they had me host something that they said Josh Thomson and Cung Le would be hosting, but it was something that they didn’t host or never were going to host and I never got paid for it. So those kinds of things, to me, made me just quit. I felt that if I’m going to put passion into it and I’m going to go out there and put your name out there that I should at least be respected enough and valued as part of the company."
Damn, even the eye-candy’s taking shots at Strikeforce now. But when you consider that NFL cheerleaders make just $50-75 a game, you can’t really expect an MMA ring girl to be compensated with anything more than complimentary booty-shorts and an occasional wink from Mauro Ranallo. Of course, this is all just an excuse to run some more photos of Nicole. You can find those after the jump…
If 2010 was a cold beer, we’d be down to the backwash. December puts all of us MMA-pundit types in a reflective mood, and this year gave us a double-crapload of big stories, insane fights, rising stars, and utter embarrassments to wrap our heads arou…
If 2010 was a cold beer, we’d be down to the backwash. December puts all of us MMA-pundit types in a reflective mood, and this year gave us a double-crapload of big stories, insane fights, rising stars, and utter embarrassments to wrap our heads around. And so, we’d like to pay tribute to 2010 in the best way we know how — sarcasm and insults, mostly. Without further ado, here are 15 things we felt were worthy of some end-of-year recognition, Potato-style…
The Giant Silva Freak Show Award, presented each year to the match that’s made strictly for gruesome entertainment value; fighters should ideally exhibit a tremendous difference in either size or experience level. Winner:Randy Couture vs. James Toney at UFC 118, in which a tubby boxing champ trash-talked his way into a co-headling bout against an MMA legend, and got choked out before he was able to land a single punch. This marks the first time in eleven years that the Giant Silva Award hasn’t been granted to a fight held in Japan. Also receiving votes this year:Herschel Walker vs. Greg Nagy
The Wanderlei Silva Unintentionally Homoerotic Smack Talk Award, known as "The Wandy"ispresented each year to the fighter who, when trying to hype a fight, inadvertently makes reference to having gay sex with his (or her) opponent. Winner:Josh Koscheck, for the utterly disturbing wild-eyed, tongue-waving description above of what he was planning to do to UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre during this season of The Ultimate Fighter. Also receiving votes this year: Matt Horwich, for his cringeworthy rant about how he was going to Mike Tyson 10th Planet protagonist Renato Laranja.
The Natasha Wicks Memorial Best Female Newcomer Award, presented each year to the up-and-coming MMA ring girl — preferably blonde, as per the bylaws — who gets us to forget about Arianny Celeste and Brittney Palmer, if only for a moment. Winner:Rhian Sugden, the stunning (and frequently-nude) star of the U.K.’s BAMMA promotion. Also receiving votes this year:Kelli Hutcherson, Stephanie Ann Cook, Brittany Ward, Melissa Jo
