Lorenzo Fertitta has revealed that Cain Velasquez‘s first heavyweight title defense against Junior Dos Santos is slated for UFC 138 (November 19th; HP Pavilion; San Jose, CA), according to a new LA Times report. It would be the UFC’s first event at the “Shark Tank,” which has been the longtime home-base for Strikeforce events. It’s a natural fit, considering Velasquez’s affiliation with San Jose’s American Kickboxing Academy.
Lorenzo Fertitta has revealed that Cain Velasquez‘s first heavyweight title defense against Junior Dos Santos is slated for UFC 138 (November 19th; HP Pavilion; San Jose, CA), according to a new LA Times report. It would be the UFC’s first event at the “Shark Tank,” which has been the longtime home-base for Strikeforce events. It’s a natural fit, considering Velasquez’s affiliation with San Jose’s American Kickboxing Academy.
Velasquez vs. Dos Santos was previously rumored for UFC 136, October 8th in Houston, but Velasquez’s recovery from shoulder surgery has taken slightly longer than expected. UFC 136 still doesn’t have any major fights officially booked — which could be a problem, considering that the next UFC Fan Expo is pegged to the event.
(“Overeem is my son. Scott Coker is my uncle. Gina Carano is my hot cousin. Josh Barnett is my sister’s meathead boyfriend.”)
Betting odds for the complete lineup of tomorrow night’s Strikeforce card were released yesterday, and looking over these numbers, it seems like the perfect opportunity to dig yourself out of the hole you put yourself in by following our previous gambling advice. Now, we don’t actually recommend the use of off-shore gambling sites these days, in light of the government’s recent eRaids, but hey, entertainment purposes and all, right? Check out the juiciest lines for Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com, then listen very carefully to what we have to say…
Main Card (Showtime, 10 p.m.)
Alistair Overeem (-321) vs. Fabricio Werdum (+300)
Josh Barnett (-319) vs. Brett Rogers (+309)
K.J. Noons (-144) vs. Jorge Masvidal (+135)
Daniel Cormier (-300) vs. Jeff Monson (+325)
Valentijn Overeem (+111) vs. Chad Griggs (-122)
(“Overeem is my son. Scott Coker is my uncle. Gina Carano is my hot cousin. Josh Barnett is my sister’s meathead boyfriend.”)
Betting odds for the complete lineup of tomorrow night’s Strikeforce card were released yesterday, and looking over these numbers, it seems like the perfect opportunity to dig yourself out of the hole you put yourself in by following our previous gambling advice. Now, we don’t actually recommend the use of off-shore gambling sites these days, in light of the government’s recent eRaids, but hey, entertainment purposes and all, right? Check out the juiciest lines for Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com, then listen very carefully to what we have to say…
Main Card (Showtime, 10 p.m.)
Alistair Overeem (-321) vs. Fabricio Werdum (+300)
Josh Barnett (-319) vs. Brett Rogers (+309)
K.J. Noons (-144) vs. Jorge Masvidal (+135)
Daniel Cormier (-300) vs. Jeff Monson (+325)
Valentijn Overeem (+111) vs. Chad Griggs (-122)
Preliminary Card (HDNet, 8 p.m. ET)
Gesias Cavalcante (-115) vs. Justin Wilcox (+110)
Conor Heun (+120) vs. Magno Almeida (-130)
Nah-Shon Burrell (+275) vs. Joe Ray (-313)
Todd Moore (+260) vs. Mike Bronzoulis (-280)
Brian Melancon (-115) vs. Isaac Vallie-Flagg (+105)
The Main Event: Look, I hug Ubereem’s nuts as much as the next dude. I’m just saying, Werdum was a +430 underdog against Fedor Emelianenko, and he managed to end that fight in 69 seconds. (He was also good enough to submit Overeem five years ago, if that means anything to you.) Most likely, Overeem will be able keep the fight standing and have his way with Werdum — but there’s always the chance that Fabricio could catch the jacked Dutchman. And since he’d triple your investment, it’s worth a modest bet.
The Good ‘Dogs: A lot of them, actually — this is definitely a card that encourages risk. Besides the main event, you have Jeff Monson as a more-than-3-to-1 underdog against Daniel Cormier. Cormier is undefeated, and always impressive in his fights, but he’s a baby in the sport, and he’s never faced anybody even remotely close to Monson’s level of skill and experience. (Stupid fact: In the Snowman’s 53-fight career, he’s earned the same number of wins via north/south choke [7] as Cormier has total fights on his record.) The line is a little inflated, is what I’m saying.
Similarly, the well-traveled Valentijn Overeem is a slight underdog against rising prospect Chad Griggs, when I’d put Alistair’s bro as a slight favorite. But the opposite is true in Cavalcante vs. Wilcox. Despite JZ’s previous history of top-ten-ranked excellence, he’s really struggled to make an impact in the last three years, while Wilcox has been on a tear. Cash on the Silverback could pay off.
Keep Away: Josh Barnett as a 3-1 fave over Brett Rogers sounds about right to me; there’s not enough edge for a straight bet, so save him for the parlay. I also think KJ Noons makes sense as a solid favorite over Jorge Masvidal, but I’d like to see how Noons looks back at lightweight for at least one fight before I start putting money on him.
The Guy You’ve Never Heard Of:Magno Almeida is a 9-1 submission ace who has ended seven of his fights in the first round. Due to injuries and bad matchups, his opponent Conor Heun hasn’t won a fight in nearly three years, and hasn’t been inside the cage since losing a decision to KJ Noons last June. Give the new kid a shot.
Official CagePotato Parlay #1 (novice): $10 on A. Overeem + Barnett + Wilcox + Almeida returns a $46.48 profit at BetUS.
Official CagePotato Parlay #2 (advanced): $10 on Werdum + Barnett + V. Overeem + Monson + Noons returns a $589.63 profit.
(Shane may have had heart, balls, guts, and a chin, but they were no match for Junior’s elite-level anatomical-metaphor defense.)
We’re almost a week removed from the magnificent beatdown that Junior dos Santos laid on Shane Carwin, and it’s probably safe to assume that all of the post-fight articles have been written about the main event at UFC 131. Well, all but one.
This article is not specifically about UFC 131 or Shane Carwin — it’s about a certain phrase that has been tied to Carwin’s performance following his three-round beating, and that phrase is “He showed a lot of heart.”
Do a Google search on MMA “showed heart” and look at the names associated with the term: Shane Carwin, Paul Daley, Roy Nelson, and Andrei Arlovski, just to name a few. Any fighter that stood in there and took a beating, yup, he “showed a lot of heart.”
It’s time to retire that phrase, and here’s why…
(Shane may have had heart, balls, guts, and a chin, but they were no match for Junior’s elite-level anatomical-metaphor defense.)
We’re almost a week removed from the magnificent beatdown that Junior dos Santos laid on Shane Carwin, and it’s probably safe to assume that all of the post-fight articles have been written about the main event at UFC 131. Well, all but one.
This article is not specifically about UFC 131 or Shane Carwin — it’s about a certain phrase that has been tied to Carwin’s performance following his three-round beating, and that phrase is “He showed a lot of heart.”
Do a Google search on MMA “showed heart” and look at the names associated with the term: Shane Carwin, Paul Daley, Roy Nelson, and Andrei Arlovski, just to name a few. Any fighter that stood in there and took a beating, yup, he “showed a lot of heart.”
It’s time to retire that phrase, and here’s why…
It’s lazy. I’ve been guilty of using the phrase myself, but I will no longer use it and I encourage anyone covering MMA to do the same. We see a fighter get beaten bloody, but he doesn’t tap, he doesn’t get KO’d and he doesn’t quit, so we attribute his performance to this mythical thing called “heart.” It’s an easy way out, and too often replaces actual analysis of the losing fighter’s performance.
It’s essentially meaningless. How do you measure heart, guts, and chutzpah? You can’t; it’s all perception. One man’s version of heart is another man’s version of sheer stupidity. Not to pick on Carwin – God knows he was beaten enough on Saturday night — but did he hang in there out of “heart” or out of the never-quit attitude that is pounded into wrestlers and other combat sport participants from a very young age? Do these fighters show this “heart” out of fear of looking soft? (As BJ Penn once said, “You tap from strikes, you’re a little bitch, that’s what I think.”) Besides, these are professional fighters we’re talking about. We don’t really expect them to run out of the cage screaming when things get tough.
It masks the truth. If I were going to write a story about UFC 131 using simple, everyday language and avoid any type of euphemism, the lede would read something like this: “On Saturday, Shane Carwin took a 15 minute beating at the hands of Junior dos Santos. At the end of the fight Carwin’s face was bloody and swollen, he was cut under both eyes and appeared to have a broken nose. Carwin was ineffective during the fight, landing 22 strikes compared to dos Santos’ 104. Carwin was never in the fight, but he showed that he can stand in there and take a beating.” No mention of heart, and you know why? Because it doesn’t exist, outside of the realm of metaphor. The truth is that Carwin can take a punch and he elected to take many of them over the course of the fight. That’s more a deficiency of strategy than anything else.
It leads to things like this. Carwin’s trainer, Trevor Wittman, who by all accounts is one of the best in the business, had the following to say to MMAMania after the fight, “To me, that was like watching a Rocky Balboa movie. Movies are made about stuff like that. As a trainer, I felt we won. We didn’t win the fight but we won as a person and as a team. He did not get beat mentally.”
I understand where Wittman is coming from in this – he has to take something positive away from the loss for his fighter – but to state that Carwin’s beating is the stuff “movies are made about.” Well, that’s a stretch. To say he won as a person and a team? How is that the case? Your fighter gets a loss on his record and he also received a trip to the ER. That’s a loss. The “moral victory,” like heart, is just a weak consolation. While Carwin may not have been beaten mentally he sure as hell was beaten physically and in a sport where you are judged with a W or an L, that’s what counts. There are no asterisks after a loss that say, “He showed a lot of heart.”
(Quinton Jackson warily high-fives Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban at the 1st Annual Pornstar Ball in Las Vegas, back in 2009. Seriously.)
The UFC announced yesterday that light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson have agreed to square off at UFC 135, September 24th at the Pepsi Center in Denver. It will be Jones’s first title defense, after winning the belt from Mauricio Rua in March. Meanwhile, Jackson is riding back-to-back decision wins over Lyoto Machida and Matt Hamill. It may not pack the kind of grudge-match heat that Jones vs. Rashad would have had, but at least Jones and Jackson disagree on the motorboating issue. So, anybody think Rampage actually has a chance against the young phenom?
A pair of heavyweight scraps have also been reportedly added to the event…
(Quinton Jackson warily high-fives Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban at the 1st Annual Pornstar Ball in Las Vegas, back in 2009. Seriously.)
The UFC announced yesterday that light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson have agreed to square off at UFC 135, September 24th at the Pepsi Center in Denver. It will be Jones’s first title defense, after winning the belt from Mauricio Rua in March. Meanwhile, Jackson is riding back-to-back decision wins over Lyoto Machida and Matt Hamill. It may not pack the kind of grudge-match heat that Jones vs. Rashad would have had, but at least Jones and Jackson disagree on the motorboating issue. So, anybody think Rampage actually has a chance against the young phenom?
A pair of heavyweight scraps have also been reportedly added to the event…
– Travis Browne vs. Rob Broughton. Not exactly a step up for Browne, who’s coming off his dramatic knockout of Stefan Struve at UFC 130. Still, Broughton is on a five-fight win streak and won his UFC debut last October by choking out Vinicius Queiroz at UFC 120.
– Mark Hunt vs. Ben Rothwell. Hunt snapped a six-fight losing streak when he knocked out Chris Tuchscherer at UFC 127 in February. Rothwell is coming off a decision win over Gilbert Yvel last June, but hasn’t been active since then due to knee surgery.
This Saturday night, Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum goes down in Dallas, featuring two more bouts from the promotion’s heavyweight grand prix: Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum, and Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers. Submit your predictions for these two fights in the comments section below, including the winner’s name, the method of victory, and the time/round of stoppage, if any. Your entry should be in this format:
This Saturday night, Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum goes down in Dallas, featuring two more bouts from the promotion’s heavyweight grand prix: Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum, and Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers. Submit your predictions for these two fights in the comments section below, including the winner’s name, the method of victory, and the time/round of stoppage, if any. Your entry should be in this format:
Alistair Overeem def. Fabricio Werdum via TKO, 2:53 of round 3
Josh Barnett def. Brett Rogers via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
Please include the judges’ scores if you think a fight will end in a decision, in case we need them for a tie-breaker. The most accurate prediction wins the book, straight up. Entries must be in by this Saturday at noon ET, and we’ll announce the winner by Monday; one entry per person, please. Any other questions, let us know. Thanks for playing, and visit VictoryBelt.com for more great instructional books and DVDs.
(Spit-bags: The sure sign of a bad time. Photo courtesy of TMZ.)
By Ben Goldstein and Jason Moles
The rule applies in any profession: For every law-abiding nice-guy, there’s an unstable son-of-a-bitch who you’d never want to leave your kids alone with. In honor of Breaking Bad: The Complete Third Season being released on DVD and Blu-ray, we decided to take a ride through MMA’s shadowy history of assault, robbery, vandalism, drug-smuggling, and other nasty behavior — the most infamous examples of fighters living dangerously and paying the price…
#16: Jeff Monson Arrested for: First-degree malicious mischief; assault on a female and injury to real property
It’s never a good idea to have evidence of your law-breaking published nationally. In a bizarre lapse of judgment, heavyweight veteran Jeff Monson was busted after he allowed ESPN the Magazine to photograph him spray-painting an anarchy symbol on the Washington state capitol building. Though the charge packed a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, the Snowman was able to plead down to three months. Just days later, Monson was arrested again when a domestic dust-up with one of his many love-interests resulted in an overturned grandfather clock and a fist-shaped hole in the wall; those charges were later dismissed.
(Spit-bags: The sure sign of a bad time. Photo courtesy of TMZ.)
By Ben Goldstein and Jason Moles
The rule applies in any profession: For every law-abiding nice-guy, there’s an unstable son-of-a-bitch who you’d never want to leave your kids alone with. In honor of Breaking Bad: The Complete Third Season being released on DVD and Blu-ray, we decided to take a ride through MMA’s shadowy history of assault, robbery, vandalism, drug-smuggling, and other nasty behavior — the most infamous examples of fighters living dangerously and paying the price…
#16: Jeff Monson Arrested for: First-degree malicious mischief; assault on a female and injury to real property
It’s never a good idea to have evidence of your law-breaking published nationally. In a bizarre lapse of judgment, heavyweight veteran Jeff Monson was busted after he allowed ESPN the Magazine to photograph him spray-painting an anarchy symbol on the Washington state capitol building. Though the charge packed a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, the Snowman was able to plead down to three months. Just days later, Monson was arrested again when a domestic dust-up with one of his many love-interests resulted in an overturned grandfather clock and a fist-shaped hole in the wall; those charges were later dismissed.
Last May, MMA’s most famous ex-wife ended an argument with her personal assistant by choking and shaking her on a bed. Couture was reportedly upset that the assistant wanted to move out of her house after living there for three weeks. The original report left us with these unsettling lines: “It seems that part of the friction that developed between the victim and Ms. Couture was that Ms. Couture was extremely controlling; she wouldn’t permit the victim any autonomy; and the implication that Ms. Couture wanted something more from the victim than just personal assistant services.”
#14: Harold Howard Arrested for: Aggravated assault, assault causing bodily harm, dangerous driving, failing to remain at the scene of an accident, etc.
The short version? He attacked two relatives with a claw hammer, then crashed his pick-up truck through the front doors of a Niagara Falls casino. It was later revealed that Howard had been self-medicating with a head-scrambling blend of Oxycocet, Gabapentin, and sleeping pills. Which begs the question: What was he on when he was cutting promos for UFC 3?
#13: Kimo Leopoldo Arrested for: Possession of a controlled substance, impersonating an officer
The famously undead UFC veteran was arrested in 2009 for hanging out in a Long Beach Police Department jumpsuit with drugs in his car. Leopoldo pleaded no-contest to stealing the police uniform, which earned him a mere 10 days of community service. However, what was first reported as meth turned out to be marijuana instead — still bad, but not lock ‘em up bad. After agreeing to a stint in rehab and three years’ probation, the misdemeanor charges were dropped.
#12: Vyacheslav Datsik Arrested for: Escaping from a Russian mental hospital by tearing through a chain link fence with his bare hands; he had been behind bars for three years for a previous string of armed robberies and death threats.
After a month on the lam, the nutty self-professed racist turned himself in to authorities in Norway, bringing along two loaded pistols for no good reason. The last we heard, he’d been granted temporary asylum in Norway after a Norwegian police psychiatrist argued that Datsik had been intentionally misdiagnosed as insane due to his undesirable political leanings. What the hell? Don’t these dudes have YouTube?
#11: Jeremy Jackson Arrested for: Forcible rape, kidnapping to commit another crime, first-degree residential burglary, assault with a firearm, dissuading a witness by force or threat, and criminal threats.
In 2008, the TUF 4 castmember was accused of breaking into an ex-girlfriend’s house and raping her at gunpoint. During the trial, the victim’s credibility came under fire, and it seemed that Jackson had a shot at going free. But Jackson changed his mind midway through and decided to plead guilty, going against the advice of his lawyer. According to one juror, Jackson “only pleaded guilty because he was depressed and wanted the trial to end.” He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Continue to the next page for Krazy Horse’s gym assault, Junie Browning’s hospital freak-out and more…
