NEW YORK – It’s a strange situation to have three fighters involved in the biggest title fight of the year less than two weeks out. But that’s where things stand ahead of UFC 189, which takes place July 11. We know that Irish superstar Conor McGregor is fighting somebody. The question is whether it’s current featherweight champion Jose Aldo, who is nursing a rib injury. Or if it’s Chad Mendes, who is training as if his shot against McGregor is set in stone.
One way or another, a belt will be on the line in Las Vegas.
At the Reebok unveiling on Tuesday, the UFC’s stars were in New York — including McGregor himself — to showcase the new “kits” that fighters will begin wearing at UFC 189. UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta was also on hand, and he said the UFC’s attitude heading into next weekend’s big pay-per-view event — which anchors International Fight Week — is to roll with the punches.
“You kind of feel like you’re just trying to keep everything together,” Fertitta told MMA Fighting. “As [UFC president] Dana [White] has mentioned, we have invested more money and more time and more energy internally with our partners — whether it be Reebok, whether it be Bud Light, with all of these entities – to get everybody moving in the right direction to promote July 11. And the majority of all those assets are obviously Aldo and McGregor, because that’s the storyline that everybody’s drawn to. Without taking anything away from Rory and Robbie, at the end of the day, that’s the main event.
“So, you get thrown a curve ball. And after the initial shock you have to take a step back and say, hey, we’ve been here before. We’ve been in these situations. We know how to react, we know how to deal with these things. And so we sat down with the group and said, what are our options? What’s Option A, what’s Option B? We knew it was a situation that no matter what direction we went we’re going to make some people happy and some people unhappy.”
When news of Aldo’s injury spread last week, a number of fighters volunteered to stand in against McGregor if needed. Among them were Mendes and Frankie Edgar, both who more than deserve a title shot.
Yet the most important figure in an opponent swap this late in the game is the guy who isn’t hurt, the one who has to refocus on an entirely different opponent. In this case it was McGregor, who has been training for a phenomenal Muay Thai striker in Aldo for the past five weeks, and now must train for a 5-foot-6 power wrestler.
Fertitta said that McGregor didn’t balk at the idea of taking on the wrestler Mendes should Aldo not be able to go.
“What happened was we basically drove down to the McMansion, woke up Conor and said, hey, this is the deal, this is what we heard, and what do you want to do?” he said. “Conor didn’t have any idea what was going on, but he said you know, I want to fight. One hundred percent. His hair was sticking up, he’d just woken up, he was in his boxers, and he walked into the kitchen and said, ‘I’m fighting — I don’t care who it is, I’m showing up on the 11th.’ So we said, okay, now we know what we can do.”
One point of contention among some fans was that the UFC opted to go with Mendes ahead of Edgar, who is coming off a victory over Urijah Faber in May. Asked how the UFC came up with the decision to go with Mendes as the fallback, Fertitta said it was a toss up.
“At the end of the day we looked also at…look, Mendez is formally ranked No. 1 ahead of McGregor,” he said. “It would have been a little weird if we picked Frankie and then Chad would say, but I’m number one. Not that we always go distinctly by one, two or three, but both guys were available, and he was number one and Frankie was number two. I think looking at Mendes’ past performances [helped]. That fight last fall against Aldo [at UFC 179] was one of the great fights in UFC history. In his last fight against Lamas he blew right through the guy. And it was like, you know what, he’s got the momentum we feel like, and we feel like he deserves it.
“And quite honestly, it was funny because I was literally sitting in my office, and I was on Twitter or something and I think [MMA Fighting’s] Luke Thomas tweeted something like, ‘one thing I know is not going to happen today is they’re not going to announce that Mendes is the replacement.’ And I was like, it’s Mendes.”
NEW YORK – It’s a strange situation to have three fighters involved in the biggest title fight of the year less than two weeks out. But that’s where things stand ahead of UFC 189, which takes place July 11. We know that Irish superstar Conor McGregor is fighting somebody. The question is whether it’s current featherweight champion Jose Aldo, who is nursing a rib injury. Or if it’s Chad Mendes, who is training as if his shot against McGregor is set in stone.
One way or another, a belt will be on the line in Las Vegas.
At the Reebok unveiling on Tuesday, the UFC’s stars were in New York — including McGregor himself — to showcase the new “kits” that fighters will begin wearing at UFC 189. UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta was also on hand, and he said the UFC’s attitude heading into next weekend’s big pay-per-view event — which anchors International Fight Week — is to roll with the punches.
“You kind of feel like you’re just trying to keep everything together,” Fertitta told MMA Fighting. “As [UFC president] Dana [White] has mentioned, we have invested more money and more time and more energy internally with our partners — whether it be Reebok, whether it be Bud Light, with all of these entities – to get everybody moving in the right direction to promote July 11. And the majority of all those assets are obviously Aldo and McGregor, because that’s the storyline that everybody’s drawn to. Without taking anything away from Rory and Robbie, at the end of the day, that’s the main event.
“So, you get thrown a curve ball. And after the initial shock you have to take a step back and say, hey, we’ve been here before. We’ve been in these situations. We know how to react, we know how to deal with these things. And so we sat down with the group and said, what are our options? What’s Option A, what’s Option B? We knew it was a situation that no matter what direction we went we’re going to make some people happy and some people unhappy.”
When news of Aldo’s injury spread last week, a number of fighters volunteered to stand in against McGregor if needed. Among them were Mendes and Frankie Edgar, both who more than deserve a title shot.
Yet the most important figure in an opponent swap this late in the game is the guy who isn’t hurt, the one who has to refocus on an entirely different opponent. In this case it was McGregor, who has been training for a phenomenal Muay Thai striker in Aldo for the past five weeks, and now must train for a 5-foot-6 power wrestler.
Fertitta said that McGregor didn’t balk at the idea of taking on the wrestler Mendes should Aldo not be able to go.
“What happened was we basically drove down to the McMansion, woke up Conor and said, hey, this is the deal, this is what we heard, and what do you want to do?” he said. “Conor didn’t have any idea what was going on, but he said you know, I want to fight. One hundred percent. His hair was sticking up, he’d just woken up, he was in his boxers, and he walked into the kitchen and said, ‘I’m fighting — I don’t care who it is, I’m showing up on the 11th.’ So we said, okay, now we know what we can do.”
One point of contention among some fans was that the UFC opted to go with Mendes ahead of Edgar, who is coming off a victory over Urijah Faber in May. Asked how the UFC came up with the decision to go with Mendes as the fallback, Fertitta said it was a toss up.
“At the end of the day we looked also at…look, Mendez is formally ranked No. 1 ahead of McGregor,” he said. “It would have been a little weird if we picked Frankie and then Chad would say, but I’m number one. Not that we always go distinctly by one, two or three, but both guys were available, and he was number one and Frankie was number two. I think looking at Mendes’ past performances [helped]. That fight last fall against Aldo [at UFC 179] was one of the great fights in UFC history. In his last fight against Lamas he blew right through the guy. And it was like, you know what, he’s got the momentum we feel like, and we feel like he deserves it.
“And quite honestly, it was funny because I was literally sitting in my office, and I was on Twitter or something and I think [MMA Fighting’s] Luke Thomas tweeted something like, ‘one thing I know is not going to happen today is they’re not going to announce that Mendes is the replacement.’ And I was like, it’s Mendes.”
NEW YORK – We are officially entering the Reebok era of the UFC. An army of big-name fighters (as well as Olivier Aubin-Mercier) trotted through the laser-lit fog of the Skylight Modern to show off what the new designs look like. Men in skinny jeans and beards clapped at the cauliflower ear sauntering down the runway like it was a regal Manhattan fashion show. The new “kits” are light weight. They are nationally coordinated. They aren’t anything Cody McKenzie could ever feel quite at home in, but they are exactly what the UFC promised.
And that is professional.
Sleek, it turns out, comes in the color of homogeny. For once Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey belonged to the same general aesthetic. The days of the odd Dude Wipes banner across a fighter’s ass belong to yesterday. Sponsorship banners in general are dead, dude. It’s time to Be More Human, as the Reebok slogan goes. Professional athletes in the UFC will now look the damn part. No more bloody human billboards. Beginning July 11 at UFC 189, our eyes will be streamlined. Rich Franklin’s Neapolitan pink and chocolate trunks will soon feel as ancient as Babe Ruth’s tiny baseball glove. Pregnancy rates will skyrocket with no Condom Depot in sight.
Breathe in the new era! One text I got from an MMA personality as the “kits” were being showcased read, “Those outfits look like the Long Island Repertory Theater doing ‘Rollerball.’” Maybe. But personally? I love it. In my mind Reebok should have rushed in as soon as Dennis Hallman showed up in the Speedo.
But at last here we are.
Not that there aren’t some kinks to work out.
For instance, Jon Tuck is not from Gum. Nor is there a Giblert Melendez on roster. And it’s a bit of a stretch to tie Jorge Masvidal’s entire identity to Cuba. Then again, identities are changing everywhere with this deal. Who the hell is Demian Baptista? What is a Marcio Lyoto Machida? If you thought calling Bec Rawlings Bec Hyatt was bad, trying calling her Rebecca Rawlings. That’s what Reebok did. And surely Thomas Lawlor isn’t the same as “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, the man who looks like he arrives to his fights via boxcar?
Those things will of course be sorted. Unveilings are about having reached a horizon, not the niggling details. By the time July 11 rolls around, all the names will look as they should (probably) and the fighters will be banded together in a broader range of professionalism. This was one of the things that the UFC has been trying to accomplish for years. The time is now.
And Lorenzo Fertitta said he was only too happy to associate with a globally recognized brand on this historic day, rather than those drifter-types that showed up across the crotches of countless hundreds for far too long.
“I think it was the sense of overkill of sponsorship,” the UFC’s CEO said. “And quite honestly, not taking anything away from some of these companies — I’m sure they’re all hard-working companies, taking risk and trying to be entrepreneurs and make their stuff happen — but we just didn’t feel like the level of some of the brands associated on the trunks, or the walkout tees, were a good fit for where we want to be. We want to align ourselves with some multinational, global sponsors. And when you do that it attracts more, and when you attract more of those sponsors then it attracts them to our athletes. To our fighters. And now you have a number of our athletes that have sponsorship deals with all of these companies.”
It’s easy to understand that logic. Even the fighters who are losing money in the immediate can surely understand the concept that you are who you hang around. But still, there’s a sadness to change. During the MMA boom period from 2005-2012 or so, the associations to MMA were manifold. We had more “douches” per capita than about any other sport. There were “tools” who were going to get got, or worse, “exposed.” It was an earthbound Brohemia, filled with barbed-wire tattoos, energy drinks and a certain kind of apparel. Who will ever forget the skulls in headdress, the imps in sombreros or top hats, the flaming griffins and iron eagles, the gratuitous dyspotic (and gleefully unapologetic) look that defined the culture? That scourge was a terrible thing to come out of MMA, but it was our scourge.
I will miss those days. I asked Lorenzo if he would, too.
“Whatever the fans connect with is all I care about,” he said. “I mean, look, [that look’s] not for me. I wear t-shirts that are plain. That’s just me. I was never one to say I know what the right style is, but at the end of the day it’s a phase that this sport went through. It was driven probably by Affliction, I would say, who did a tremendous job. You’ve got to give those guys credit for literally building a company in a very short period that was a big, sustainable company. Then TapouT sort of followed their lead, and then there was this huge rush of people kind of running to create these businesses. Some worked, and some didn’t.
“It was a phase that I think is over, and I think that what you’re going to see, whether it’s the UFC fighter kit or just brands that are in the MMA space, they will continue to be there — the Venoms, the Bad Boys – and are probably going to migrate towards a cleaner sporting look. That would be my guess.”
My guess, too. So long Condom Depot and Dude Wipes. Adios Dynamic Fastener and Fred’s Auto Body. So long crossbows and half-decaying skeleton angels. Hello clean-looking Reebok. Hope the hunch behind it all is right. Maybe it is time for this sport to Be More Human.
NEW YORK – We are officially entering the Reebok era of the UFC. An army of big-name fighters (as well as Olivier Aubin-Mercier) trotted through the laser-lit fog of the Skylight Modern to show off what the new designs look like. Men in skinny jeans and beards clapped at the cauliflower ear sauntering down the runway like it was a regal Manhattan fashion show. The new “kits” are light weight. They are nationally coordinated. They aren’t anything Cody McKenzie could ever feel quite at home in, but they are exactly what the UFC promised.
And that is professional.
Sleek, it turns out, comes in the color of homogeny. For once Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey belonged to the same general aesthetic. The days of the odd Dude Wipes banner across a fighter’s ass belong to yesterday. Sponsorship banners in general are dead, dude. It’s time to Be More Human, as the Reebok slogan goes. Professional athletes in the UFC will now look the damn part. No more bloody human billboards. Beginning July 11 at UFC 189, our eyes will be streamlined. Rich Franklin’s Neapolitan pink and chocolate trunks will soon feel as ancient as Babe Ruth’s tiny baseball glove. Pregnancy rates will skyrocket with no Condom Depot in sight.
Breathe in the new era! One text I got from an MMA personality as the “kits” were being showcased read, “Those outfits look like the Long Island Repertory Theater doing ‘Rollerball.’” Maybe. But personally? I love it. In my mind Reebok should have rushed in as soon as Dennis Hallman showed up in the Speedo.
But at last here we are.
Not that there aren’t some kinks to work out.
For instance, Jon Tuck is not from Gum. Nor is there a Giblert Melendez on roster. And it’s a bit of a stretch to tie Jorge Masvidal’s entire identity to Cuba. Then again, identities are changing everywhere with this deal. Who the hell is Demian Baptista? What is a Marcio Lyoto Machida? If you thought calling Bec Rawlings Bec Hyatt was bad, trying calling her Rebecca Rawlings. That’s what Reebok did. And surely Thomas Lawlor isn’t the same as “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, the man who looks like he arrives to his fights via boxcar?
Those things will of course be sorted. Unveilings are about having reached a horizon, not the niggling details. By the time July 11 rolls around, all the names will look as they should (probably) and the fighters will be banded together in a broader range of professionalism. This was one of the things that the UFC has been trying to accomplish for years. The time is now.
And Lorenzo Fertitta said he was only too happy to associate with a globally recognized brand on this historic day, rather than those drifter-types that showed up across the crotches of countless hundreds for far too long.
“I think it was the sense of overkill of sponsorship,” the UFC’s CEO said. “And quite honestly, not taking anything away from some of these companies — I’m sure they’re all hard-working companies, taking risk and trying to be entrepreneurs and make their stuff happen — but we just didn’t feel like the level of some of the brands associated on the trunks, or the walkout tees, were a good fit for where we want to be. We want to align ourselves with some multinational, global sponsors. And when you do that it attracts more, and when you attract more of those sponsors then it attracts them to our athletes. To our fighters. And now you have a number of our athletes that have sponsorship deals with all of these companies.”
It’s easy to understand that logic. Even the fighters who are losing money in the immediate can surely understand the concept that you are who you hang around. But still, there’s a sadness to change. During the MMA boom period from 2005-2012 or so, the associations to MMA were manifold. We had more “douches” per capita than about any other sport. There were “tools” who were going to get got, or worse, “exposed.” It was an earthbound Brohemia, filled with barbed-wire tattoos, energy drinks and a certain kind of apparel. Who will ever forget the skulls in headdress, the imps in sombreros or top hats, the flaming griffins and iron eagles, the gratuitous dyspotic (and gleefully unapologetic) look that defined the culture? That scourge was a terrible thing to come out of MMA, but it was our scourge.
I will miss those days. I asked Lorenzo if he would, too.
“Whatever the fans connect with is all I care about,” he said. “I mean, look, [that look’s] not for me. I wear t-shirts that are plain. That’s just me. I was never one to say I know what the right style is, but at the end of the day it’s a phase that this sport went through. It was driven probably by Affliction, I would say, who did a tremendous job. You’ve got to give those guys credit for literally building a company in a very short period that was a big, sustainable company. Then TapouT sort of followed their lead, and then there was this huge rush of people kind of running to create these businesses. Some worked, and some didn’t.
“It was a phase that I think is over, and I think that what you’re going to see, whether it’s the UFC fighter kit or just brands that are in the MMA space, they will continue to be there — the Venoms, the Bad Boys – and are probably going to migrate towards a cleaner sporting look. That would be my guess.”
My guess, too. So long Condom Depot and Dude Wipes. Adios Dynamic Fastener and Fred’s Auto Body. So long crossbows and half-decaying skeleton angels. Hello clean-looking Reebok. Hope the hunch behind it all is right. Maybe it is time for this sport to Be More Human.
The UFC’s newly signed strawweight Jessica Aguilar will have a tough test in her debut at UFC 190 against Claudia Gadelha in Brazil. Not only will she be the interloper in the situation with the partisan crowd in Rio pulling for Gadelha, but she’ll be going up against the woman whom many thought beat the current champion.
When Gadelha fought 115-pound champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC on FOX 13 last December, the Polish fighter won a narrow — even controversial — split decision. Less than three months later Jedrzejczyk dominated TUF 20 and inaugural strawweight champion Carla Esparza to win the belt in Dallas.
With Jedrzejeczyk set to defend the title next week at UFC Fight Night 69 in Berlin against Jessica Penne, Aguilar expects her fight with Gadelha to be for the No. 1 contender spot to face the winner. The erstwhile World Series of Fighting strawweight champ appeared on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour and talked about it.
“I am sure she’s pumped about it, Claudia, and we saw her last fight,” Aguilar said. “I mean, in my eyes I think she won the fight. But, I do think that this is a contender fight and I am so pumped and excited about it.” Asked directly if she’s been informed by the UFC that it is definitively a title eliminator, Aguilar said no.
“They have not [told me that], but things can happen,” she told Ariel Helwani. “They said it can happen if I go out there and do what I need to do and show my skills and then it might happen. But depending on what happens with Joanna and Jessica in a week, anything can happen and we’ll just go from there.
“But I’m looking at this fight for now, this is my championship fight. I am training like I’m fighting for the title. So, this is the fight I’m looking at right now.”
The 33-year old Aguilar, who trains at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, was a prized free agent pick-up who signed with the UFC last Thursday. She is riding a 10-fight winning streak that spans back to her time with the now defunct Florida-based promotion, G-Force, through Bellator and eventually the WSOF.
Aguilar won the inaugural strawweight title with WSOF against Alida Gray in January 2014, and defended the belt twice since then against Emi Fujino and Kalindra Faria. She has victories over Megumi Fujii, TUF 20 alum Lisa Ellis and Esparza during that run as well.
Aguilar said that her and Gadelha had a bit of history together going back to a grappling tournament.
“I already competed against her in Brazilian jiu-jitsu when I was a blue belt, it was a couple of years back in Texas,” she said. “It was an open class. She was like 145 pounds at the time, she was a brown belt, and I lost by advantage. But I’ve been watching her for a while now, and I know that she’s very talented. Based upon her fight with Joanna, I know that she has a lot of skills. It’s going to be an exciting match-up, and I’m just pumped to fight in front of those great fans.”
Though it’s all speculative as she gets her UFC career rolling, Aguilar, who is Mexican by birth, said that she wouldn’t hesitate to fight in Mexico if given the opportunity — regardless of what happened this past weekend at UFC 188. In Mexico City, several fighters — including those known for their cardio, like Gilbert Melendez and Cain Velasquez — gassed out competing at over 7,000 feet above sea level.
Asked if that might make her think twice about taking a fight there, she said it wouldn’t.
“Not at all, it made me even want it more,” she said. “If I get that opportunity to fight there, I’ll do my fight camp there. My entire fight camp. So, we’ll talk about that then, but right now I am really excited about UFC 190, and I can’t wait to show the fans on this platform who Jessica ‘Jag’ is.”
One of the winners from Saturday night’s fights at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico was Aguilar’s training partner, Tecia Torres, who scored a decision over fellow TUF 20 alum Angela Hill. In the aftermath of the fight, Torres was on record saying she’d fight her teammate Aguilar only if a belt was involved.
When asked if she echoed this sentiment, that she’d face Torres under those specific circumstances, Aguilar said she would see.
“If that happens, we’ll talk about it then,” she said. “But if it happens, and she’s in that position, then yeah. We train at one of the top gyms in the world at American Top Team and we have a lot of guys like that as well in the welterweight division especially. So, if that happens, I’m honored to go against a teammate.”
The UFC’s newly signed strawweight Jessica Aguilar will have a tough test in her debut at UFC 190 against Claudia Gadelha in Brazil. Not only will she be the interloper in the situation with the partisan crowd in Rio pulling for Gadelha, but she’ll be going up against the woman whom many thought beat the current champion.
When Gadelha fought 115-pound champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC on FOX 13 last December, the Polish fighter won a narrow — even controversial — split decision. Less than three months later Jedrzejczyk dominated TUF 20 and inaugural strawweight champion Carla Esparza to win the belt in Dallas.
With Jedrzejeczyk set to defend the title next week at UFC Fight Night 69 in Berlin against Jessica Penne, Aguilar expects her fight with Gadelha to be for the No. 1 contender spot to face the winner. The erstwhile World Series of Fighting strawweight champ appeared on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour and talked about it.
“I am sure she’s pumped about it, Claudia, and we saw her last fight,” Aguilar said. “I mean, in my eyes I think she won the fight. But, I do think that this is a contender fight and I am so pumped and excited about it.” Asked directly if she’s been informed by the UFC that it is definitively a title eliminator, Aguilar said no.
“They have not [told me that], but things can happen,” she told Ariel Helwani. “They said it can happen if I go out there and do what I need to do and show my skills and then it might happen. But depending on what happens with Joanna and Jessica in a week, anything can happen and we’ll just go from there.
“But I’m looking at this fight for now, this is my championship fight. I am training like I’m fighting for the title. So, this is the fight I’m looking at right now.”
The 33-year old Aguilar, who trains at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, was a prized free agent pick-up who signed with the UFC last Thursday. She is riding a 10-fight winning streak that spans back to her time with the now defunct Florida-based promotion, G-Force, through Bellator and eventually the WSOF.
Aguilar won the inaugural strawweight title with WSOF against Alida Gray in January 2014, and defended the belt twice since then against Emi Fujino and Kalindra Faria. She has victories over Megumi Fujii, TUF 20 alum Lisa Ellis and Esparza during that run as well.
Aguilar said that her and Gadelha had a bit of history together going back to a grappling tournament.
“I already competed against her in Brazilian jiu-jitsu when I was a blue belt, it was a couple of years back in Texas,” she said. “It was an open class. She was like 145 pounds at the time, she was a brown belt, and I lost by advantage. But I’ve been watching her for a while now, and I know that she’s very talented. Based upon her fight with Joanna, I know that she has a lot of skills. It’s going to be an exciting match-up, and I’m just pumped to fight in front of those great fans.”
Though it’s all speculative as she gets her UFC career rolling, Aguilar, who is Mexican by birth, said that she wouldn’t hesitate to fight in Mexico if given the opportunity — regardless of what happened this past weekend at UFC 188. In Mexico City, several fighters — including those known for their cardio, like Gilbert Melendez and Cain Velasquez — gassed out competing at over 7,000 feet above sea level.
Asked if that might make her think twice about taking a fight there, she said it wouldn’t.
“Not at all, it made me even want it more,” she said. “If I get that opportunity to fight there, I’ll do my fight camp there. My entire fight camp. So, we’ll talk about that then, but right now I am really excited about UFC 190, and I can’t wait to show the fans on this platform who Jessica ‘Jag’ is.”
One of the winners from Saturday night’s fights at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico was Aguilar’s training partner, Tecia Torres, who scored a decision over fellow TUF 20 alum Angela Hill. In the aftermath of the fight, Torres was on record saying she’d fight her teammate Aguilar only if a belt was involved.
When asked if she echoed this sentiment, that she’d face Torres under those specific circumstances, Aguilar said she would see.
“If that happens, we’ll talk about it then,” she said. “But if it happens, and she’s in that position, then yeah. We train at one of the top gyms in the world at American Top Team and we have a lot of guys like that as well in the welterweight division especially. So, if that happens, I’m honored to go against a teammate.”
There’s something tragic in seeing the footage of Ken Shamrock living in an RV without running water leading up to a fight with a guy who has gold teeth. But, then again, much of the fight game’s charm comes from such extremes. Shamrock, who is 51 years old, isn’t just some old husk. He was a somebody. A pioneer in these mixed-up disciplines. A legend. The thought of passing headlights playing across his face as he sleeps reminds me of Bukowski’s 31-word poem, “Oh, Yes.”
…And there’s nothing worse than too late.
I feel certain that somebody is trying to break our hearts.
And unless crazy strikes twice, Shamrock will finally get to fight Kimbo Slice on Friday night in St. Louis at Bellator 138. If you don’t know by now, those two just happen to be the bane of each other’s existences. In 2008, Shamrock, already stenciled as a “has-been” and a very beatable “name” for the transcendent back-alley brawler Slice, was hours away from competing in the most-viewed MMA event in history. Yet somewhere between the weigh-ins and the fight itself he cut himself and was forced out. That set up an absolute comedy of events. Seth Petruzelli stepped in against Kimbo on short notice and, ignoring any subliminal memos being sent from CBS and EliteXC execs, knocked the game’s greatest cash cow out with a short right jab.
So many delusions went flying up through the ceiling that night in Sunrise, like a funnel of moaning spirits.
EliteXC folded afterwards. Shamrock was the butt of many jokes. Petruzelli became known as “The Kimbo Killer.” The Kimbo myth was busted. It was a fantastic disaster. Kimbo and Shamrock went on hating each other for the next seven years until Scott Coker took over Bellator and, like a vendetta-herder, brought them back together.
And presto, we’re forced into deep introspection about what it is we find compelling about fights to begin with. Coker is all about reassuring us that our masochism knows no bounds. He is always there to remind us that we’re drawn irresistibly to a carny attraction like bugs to the purple light. Scott Coker may not be forthcoming with information, but he is tapped into the primal urge that we practice batting down in polite company.
For Shamrock, though, this is personal. That’s why he purposely exiled himself to an RV in Southern California. He wants to win. And Kimbo, well, take cover because he’s testing out those wordplays again. “If it makes dollars, it makes cents,” he said in his first press conference back. (This the same cat who uttered the famous words, “The inner me is the enemy,” during an epiphany moment on The Ultimate Fighter 10).
(Maybe Kimbo Slice is a kind of modern day Bukowski).
Kimbo wants to get paid.
Realistically, on any rational level — any “sporting” level — there’s nothing compelling about a fight between a guy at least two decades past his prime and a guy who had no prime to begin with. Neither man has fought since 2010, the same year that Ronda Rousey had her first amateur bout. Kimbo’s greatest accomplishment remains relegated to the unsanctioned back-alleys of Miami, where he made a name for himself beating up bouncers for millions of online voyeurs. Shamrock dates back to Early Man. He fought everybody from Royce Gracie to Bas Rutten. He fought under no rules, limited rules and unified rules. Even the muttonchops that accentuate his stone features date back to the Civil War, to old Ambrose Burnside, a fighting man himself.
To put it in perspective, when the UFC began in 1993, Shamrock was already pushing 30 years old. He fought Masakatsu Funaki when Sergio Pettis was a month old. He’s like a spirit haunting his own body. The dude carries a Bible and a Glock, and feels they have equal sway in morality.
No, to see Kimbo and Shamrock trade punches in 2015 almost seems cruel.
Almost because, then again, on the “spectacle” level, on the carnival grounds where you just have to know what’s behind the tent flap…damn is this one fun. It doesn’t have to be clean or disciplined or technical, it just has to be about two well-known guys still carrying an unresolved grudge. It has to be the fact that Shamrock could (and should) fall on his face against Kimbo, who has no business being in a cage (other than business itself). It has to be resolved, because it was so epically left undone.
Heavyweights Shamrock vs. Kimbo. Seven years later. Neither man what you might call “relevant.” Each man a throwback to less polished times. One with muttonchops, the other with “forty thousand dollars” in his mouth worth of gold. Ninety-two freaking years between them. Locked in a cage to do each other harm.
God help us. Shame on all of us. Can’t believe this train wreck. You call this entertainment? Nine o’clock eastern, 6 o’clock out west. Hope there’s enough beer in the fridge to help slog through all this guilt.
There’s something tragic in seeing the footage of Ken Shamrock living in an RV without running water leading up to a fight with a guy who has gold teeth. But, then again, much of the fight game’s charm comes from such extremes. Shamrock, who is 51 years old, isn’t just some old husk. He was a somebody. A pioneer in these mixed-up disciplines. A legend. The thought of passing headlights playing across his face as he sleeps reminds me of Bukowski’s 31-word poem, “Oh, Yes.”
…And there’s nothing worse than too late.
I feel certain that somebody is trying to break our hearts.
And unless crazy strikes twice, Shamrock will finally get to fight Kimbo Slice on Friday night in St. Louis at Bellator 138. If you don’t know by now, those two just happen to be the bane of each other’s existences. In 2008, Shamrock, already stenciled as a “has-been” and a very beatable “name” for the transcendent back-alley brawler Slice, was hours away from competing in the most-viewed MMA event in history. Yet somewhere between the weigh-ins and the fight itself he cut himself and was forced out. That set up an absolute comedy of events. Seth Petruzelli stepped in against Kimbo on short notice and, ignoring any subliminal memos being sent from CBS and EliteXC execs, knocked the game’s greatest cash cow out with a short right jab.
So many delusions went flying up through the ceiling that night in Sunrise, like a funnel of moaning spirits.
EliteXC folded afterwards. Shamrock was the butt of many jokes. Petruzelli became known as “The Kimbo Killer.” The Kimbo myth was busted. It was a fantastic disaster. Kimbo and Shamrock went on hating each other for the next seven years until Scott Coker took over Bellator and, like a vendetta-herder, brought them back together.
And presto, we’re forced into deep introspection about what it is we find compelling about fights to begin with. Coker is all about reassuring us that our masochism knows no bounds. He is always there to remind us that we’re drawn irresistibly to a carny attraction like bugs to the purple light. Scott Coker may not be forthcoming with information, but he is tapped into the primal urge that we practice batting down in polite company.
For Shamrock, though, this is personal. That’s why he purposely exiled himself to an RV in Southern California. He wants to win. And Kimbo, well, take cover because he’s testing out those wordplays again. “If it makes dollars, it makes cents,” he said in his first press conference back. (This the same cat who uttered the famous words, “The inner me is the enemy,” during an epiphany moment on The Ultimate Fighter 10).
(Maybe Kimbo Slice is a kind of modern day Bukowski).
Kimbo wants to get paid.
Realistically, on any rational level — any “sporting” level — there’s nothing compelling about a fight between a guy at least two decades past his prime and a guy who had no prime to begin with. Neither man has fought since 2010, the same year that Ronda Rousey had her first amateur bout. Kimbo’s greatest accomplishment remains relegated to the unsanctioned back-alleys of Miami, where he made a name for himself beating up bouncers for millions of online voyeurs. Shamrock dates back to Early Man. He fought everybody from Royce Gracie to Bas Rutten. He fought under no rules, limited rules and unified rules. Even the muttonchops that accentuate his stone features date back to the Civil War, to old Ambrose Burnside, a fighting man himself.
To put it in perspective, when the UFC began in 1993, Shamrock was already pushing 30 years old. He fought Masakatsu Funaki when Sergio Pettis was a month old. He’s like a spirit haunting his own body. The dude carries a Bible and a Glock, and feels they have equal sway in morality.
No, to see Kimbo and Shamrock trade punches in 2015 almost seems cruel.
Almost because, then again, on the “spectacle” level, on the carnival grounds where you just have to know what’s behind the tent flap…damn is this one fun. It doesn’t have to be clean or disciplined or technical, it just has to be about two well-known guys still carrying an unresolved grudge. It has to be the fact that Shamrock could (and should) fall on his face against Kimbo, who has no business being in a cage (other than business itself). It has to be resolved, because it was so epically left undone.
Heavyweights Shamrock vs. Kimbo. Seven years later. Neither man what you might call “relevant.” Each man a throwback to less polished times. One with muttonchops, the other with “forty thousand dollars” in his mouth worth of gold. Ninety-two freaking years between them. Locked in a cage to do each other harm.
God help us. Shame on all of us. Can’t believe this train wreck. You call this entertainment? Nine o’clock eastern, 6 o’clock out west. Hope there’s enough beer in the fridge to help slog through all this guilt.
It was billed as a fight for a father to avenge his son’s loss. But on Saturday night at NEF MMA XVIII: “Made in America” in Lewiston, Maine, it was Pat Kelly who got his arm raised.
Again.
The 51-year old Kelly scored a first-round TKO victory over Dr. Steve Bang, who was attempting to avenge his son, Steve Bang Jr, who lost to Kelly back in November. MMA Fighting did a story leading up to the amateur fight, which was contested at 160 pounds at the Androscoggin Bank Colisée.
The 45-year old Bang Sr. — who turned 46 on Tuesday, and works as a bariatric surgeon by day — had hoped to even the score with Kelly, whom he said he felt he “already had a loss against.” Yet he lasted just 31 seconds against Kelly, getting hit with a barrage early, and finally dropped with a big left hand that signaled the end.
Here is the video of the fight:
It was billed as a fight for a father to avenge his son’s loss. But on Saturday night at NEF MMA XVIII: “Made in America” in Lewiston, Maine, it was Pat Kelly who got his arm raised.
Again.
The 51-year old Kelly scored a first-round TKO victory over Dr. Steve Bang, who was attempting to avenge his son, Steve Bang Jr, who lost to Kelly back in November. MMA Fighting did a story leading up to the amateur fight, which was contested at 160 pounds at the Androscoggin Bank Colisée.
The 45-year old Bang Sr. — who turned 46 on Tuesday, and works as a bariatric surgeon by day — had hoped to even the score with Kelly, whom he said he felt he “already had a loss against.” Yet he lasted just 31 seconds against Kelly, getting hit with a barrage early, and finally dropped with a big left hand that signaled the end.
How foolish is it to try and project even just six months into the future of the UFC? Well…it’s asinine foolish, if we’re keeping everything a hunnit. Like, preposterously, other-level ridiculous.
It’s easier to forecast earthquakes, you see.
Heading into the year plenty of the game’s most dominant icons were still intact. Anderson Silva, considered the greatest of all time, was coming back against Nick Diaz, yet another testament to his total sublimity. Jon Jones, considered the greatest of now, was still untouchable heading into his fight with Daniel Cormier. Anthony Pettis was (and still is) on the Wheaties box, for god’s sake. And Cain Velasquez was still considered by many — particularly UFCphiles who never acquired a taste for beet borscht — the greatest heavyweight of all time.
Oh yes, Velasquez. At UFC 188, Fabricio Werdum snagged another figure from the pantheon of greats, sapped him of will and aura, and smuggled his invincibility out of Mexico. Didn’t see that coming? Get used to it.
Six months into 2015 you can’t help but realize (yet again) just how unpredictable the UFC is. Champions are booked to get beat. Champions beat themselves. Champions are nothing more than really strong ephemera.
Velasquez got beat by perhaps the game’s master dupe in Werdum, who somehow always convinces everyone (including Vegas oddsmakers) that he has zero chance of beating the monstrosity in front of him. How long is Werdum’s reach? Those go-to-hell jabs he was crashing into Velasquez’s wobbling head were also aimed at our misconceptions.
The others have fallen in their various ways. Jones got beat by the guy his coach Greg Jackson feared might have his number (himself). Pettis was dominated by Rafael dos Anjos. And Silva, well…pfft.
What a mess.
Other than Ronda Rousey and Demetrious Johnson (and maybeChris Weidman), the only constant right now is Jose Aldo, and it doesn’t take a diehard MMA fan to realize he’s the one pillar that the UFC wouldn’t mind painting Irish green. Conor McGregor fights him on July 11, and you best believe he’ll be sharing some Midleton Very Rare with the avuncular types at Zuffa headquarters should he take that belt. If McGregor can share Lorenzo Fertitta’s tailor, he can damn well share a glass of celebratory whisky.
Point is, champions aren’t meant to last in the UFC. Not anymore. Not since Georges St-Pierre, the game’s true opus, rode off into the sunset with a face battered to match its orange and purple majesty. Since then everything has been fog-based. If it’s not a challenger that gets them, it’s life. If that gauntlet is gotten through, it’s Hollywood. Or injuries. Just ask Dominick Cruz, who hasn’t lost anything since 2007 except his belt.
Werdum is the latest to rise out of some forgotten place to the greatest elevation in the sport. There was a time when Werdum was pleading with Alistair Overeem to come to the ground with him in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. He didn’t trust his hands. That memory, along with him getting crushed by a Junior dos Santos left at UFC 90, endured enough for him to sneak into the pound-for-pound conversation.
People refused to see him coming. Now he’s here.
Werdum joins the list of Improbable Stories, along with middleweight champion Robbie Lawler who was losing to Lorenz Larkin not all that long ago, and T.J. Dillashaw, who somehow defeated the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the sport (for that week), Renan Barao. There’s no rhyme or reason, there are only fate-dealing fists from the blue corner that keep changing the narrative.
The good news is that all this flux means other narratives change, too. For instance, Brazilian champions are no longer on the endangered species list. For a brief moment there it was Aldo fighting not just to retain his featherweight belt, but for the pride of Brazil. Dos Anjos and Werdum have reestablished Brazil as a force. Bethe Correia will get a shot at Rousey in August, and Barao will get another shot at Dillashaw.
But I’ll tell what’s on the endangered list midway through this year — the concept of the “superfight.” The most burning superfight that could have been arranged heading into this year would have been a fight between Jones and Velasquez, and that after Jones and Silva of years past, and that after Silva and GSP back when Dallas Cowboys Stadium came up during every press conference.
These days, who knows. In six more months, it’s possible the world will appear right side up. For now, we live in a time where Rafael Dos Anjos, Fabricio Werdum, T.J. Dillashaw, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Daniel Cormier and Robbie Lawler are all champions. What an unlikely list of names.
And by the end of 2015, here’s what we can safely say — those names are subject to change.
How foolish is it to try and project even just six months into the future of the UFC? Well…it’s asinine foolish, if we’re keeping everything a hunnit. Like, preposterously, other-level ridiculous.
It’s easier to forecast earthquakes, you see.
Heading into the year plenty of the game’s most dominant icons were still intact. Anderson Silva, considered the greatest of all time, was coming back against Nick Diaz, yet another testament to his total sublimity. Jon Jones, considered the greatest of now, was still untouchable heading into his fight with Daniel Cormier. Anthony Pettis was (and still is) on the Wheaties box, for god’s sake. And Cain Velasquez was still considered by many — particularly UFCphiles who never acquired a taste for beet borscht — the greatest heavyweight of all time.
Oh yes, Velasquez. At UFC 188, Fabricio Werdum snagged another figure from the pantheon of greats, sapped him of will and aura, and smuggled his invincibility out of Mexico. Didn’t see that coming? Get used to it.
Six months into 2015 you can’t help but realize (yet again) just how unpredictable the UFC is. Champions are booked to get beat. Champions beat themselves. Champions are nothing more than really strong ephemera.
Velasquez got beat by perhaps the game’s master dupe in Werdum, who somehow always convinces everyone (including Vegas oddsmakers) that he has zero chance of beating the monstrosity in front of him. How long is Werdum’s reach? Those go-to-hell jabs he was crashing into Velasquez’s wobbling head were also aimed at our misconceptions.
The others have fallen in their various ways. Jones got beat by the guy his coach Greg Jackson feared might have his number (himself). Pettis was dominated by Rafael dos Anjos. And Silva, well…pfft.
What a mess.
Other than Ronda Rousey and Demetrious Johnson (and maybeChris Weidman), the only constant right now is Jose Aldo, and it doesn’t take a diehard MMA fan to realize he’s the one pillar that the UFC wouldn’t mind painting Irish green. Conor McGregor fights him on July 11, and you best believe he’ll be sharing some Midleton Very Rare with the avuncular types at Zuffa headquarters should he take that belt. If McGregor can share Lorenzo Fertitta’s tailor, he can damn well share a glass of celebratory whisky.
Point is, champions aren’t meant to last in the UFC. Not anymore. Not since Georges St-Pierre, the game’s true opus, rode off into the sunset with a face battered to match its orange and purple majesty. Since then everything has been fog-based. If it’s not a challenger that gets them, it’s life. If that gauntlet is gotten through, it’s Hollywood. Or injuries. Just ask Dominick Cruz, who hasn’t lost anything since 2007 except his belt.
Werdum is the latest to rise out of some forgotten place to the greatest elevation in the sport. There was a time when Werdum was pleading with Alistair Overeem to come to the ground with him in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. He didn’t trust his hands. That memory, along with him getting crushed by a Junior dos Santos left at UFC 90, endured enough for him to sneak into the pound-for-pound conversation.
People refused to see him coming. Now he’s here.
Werdum joins the list of Improbable Stories, along with middleweight champion Robbie Lawler who was losing to Lorenz Larkin not all that long ago, and T.J. Dillashaw, who somehow defeated the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the sport (for that week), Renan Barao. There’s no rhyme or reason, there are only fate-dealing fists from the blue corner that keep changing the narrative.
The good news is that all this flux means other narratives change, too. For instance, Brazilian champions are no longer on the endangered species list. For a brief moment there it was Aldo fighting not just to retain his featherweight belt, but for the pride of Brazil. Dos Anjos and Werdum have reestablished Brazil as a force. Bethe Correia will get a shot at Rousey in August, and Barao will get another shot at Dillashaw.
But I’ll tell what’s on the endangered list midway through this year — the concept of the “superfight.” The most burning superfight that could have been arranged heading into this year would have been a fight between Jones and Velasquez, and that after Jones and Silva of years past, and that after Silva and GSP back when Dallas Cowboys Stadium came up during every press conference.
These days, who knows. In six more months, it’s possible the world will appear right side up. For now, we live in a time where Rafael Dos Anjos, Fabricio Werdum, T.J. Dillashaw, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Daniel Cormier and Robbie Lawler are all champions. What an unlikely list of names.
And by the end of 2015, here’s what we can safely say — those names are subject to change.
