(For his final masterpiece, Michelangelo decided to pay tribute to the Biblical hero’s fall from grace through the medium of hamstone. The results were shocking, yet delicious.)
As is likely the case for most of you, we here at CagePotato are more than willing to admit that we all but completely missed out on the failed experiment that was TUF Live. The placement of the show on Friday nights, the rehashed trash-talk and pranks between coaches; it just seemed all too played out and tired to really get us hooked. The fact that Dominick Cruz tore his ACL with only a couple episodes to go only furthered our belief that the season would have been a complete loss if not for the uplifting story of the season’s lightweight winner, Don Cheadle (or something like that).
So when Dana White informed USA TODAY Sports yesterday that the coaches for this season would be polar opposite heavyweights Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin, it more than piqued our interest. Aside from being the winner of the show’s tenth (and arguably least talent filled) season, TUF: Heavyweights, Nelson is by all accounts, one entertaining and funny sumbitch. Carwin, on the other hand, has shown before that he is up for a good joshing as long as it is not aimed at him. If you recall, the last time we got on Carwin’s bad side, Old Dad packed up his things, fled, faked his death, died his eyebrows, and attended his own funeral as a man named Phil Schiffley. The last we heard, he was still reporting on all things MMA from a one man vessel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean out of fear that “The Engineer” was still looking for him. So clearly, the potential for hilarity between these two on the set is higher than Nelson’s cholesterol levels.
(For his final masterpiece, Michelangelo decided to pay tribute to the Biblical hero’s fall from grace through the medium of hamstone. The results were shocking, yet delicious.)
As is likely the case for most of you, we here at CagePotato are more than willing to admit that we all but completely missed out on the failed experiment that was TUF Live. The placement of the show on Friday nights, the rehashed trash-talk and pranks between coaches; it just seemed all too played out and tired to really get us hooked. The fact that Dominick Cruz tore his ACL with only a couple episodes to go only furthered our belief that the season would have been a complete loss if not for the uplifting story of the season’s lightweight winner, Don Cheadle (or something like that).
So when Dana White informed USA TODAY Sports yesterday that the coaches for this season would be polar opposite heavyweights Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin, it more than piqued our interest. Aside from being the winner of the show’s tenth (and arguably least talent filled) season, TUF: Heavyweights, Nelson is by all accounts, one entertaining and funny sumbitch. Carwin, on the other hand, has shown before that he is up for a good joshing as long as it is not aimed at him. If you recall, the last time we got on Carwin’s bad side, Old Dad packed up his things, fled, faked his death, died his eyebrows, and attended his own funeral as a man named Phil Schiffley. The last we heard, he was still reporting on all things MMA from a one man vessel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean out of fear that “The Engineer” was still looking for him. So clearly, the potential for hilarity between these two on the set is higher than Nelson’s cholesterol levels.
And although Carwin did in fact take a year away from action following his UFC 131 loss to Junior Dos Santos to search the world over for Fowlkes, he also spent a good deal of time rehabilitating his back. Coincidentally, it was this very injury that forced him out of his original matchup with Nelson at UFC 125.
“Big Country” most recently found his way back to the win column with a first round knockout of Dave Herman at UFC 146. Just 2-3 in his past five, Nelson certainly won’t be looking at a title shot with a win over Carwin, but a victory would undoubtedly be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, of his Zuffa career.
And in other TUF coaching news…
For those of you who didn’t stick around to catch the post-fight show on FUEL TV last night, DW also announced that the coaches for the second international season of TUF, which will see fighters from the UK square off against Australia’s finest, will be TUF 9 winner Ross Pearson and TUF 6 standout George Sotiropoulus. Both men have fallen on hard times as of late, with G Sots dropping his past two to Dennis Siver (via decision) and Rafael Dos Anjos (via lawn chair KO). After dropping to featherweight following a 4-2 UFC stint at lightweight and scoring a unanimous decision victory over Junior Assuncao, Pearson most recently screwed our parlay over royally when he was knocked out by Cub Swanson in the second round of their tilt at UFC on FX 4.
So, Potato Nation, do these matchups do anything for you?
Question: What’s more embarrassing than being knocked out cold in vicious fashion in front of hundreds of thousands of dozens of people? Answer: Getting dropped before the Europop anthem in the background can even drop the beat. Coming to us courtesy of the Russian Muay Thai championships, which went down on June 26th, this beauty of a knockout takes just six seconds to come to fruition in the form of a head kick. Sure, it’s not an Edson Barboza-esque spinning wheel kick, but throwing a well-timed head kick like that isn’t simple. Just ask this fellow Russian:
Question: What’s more embarrassing than being knocked out cold in vicious fashion in front of hundreds of thousands of dozens of people? Answer: Getting dropped before the Europop anthem in the background can even drop the beat. Coming to us courtesy of the Russian Muay Thai championships, which went down on June 26th, this beauty of a knockout takes just six seconds to come to fruition in the form of a head kick. Sure, it’s not an Edson Barboza-esque spinning wheel kick, but throwing a well-timed head kick like that isn’t simple. Just ask this fellow Russian:
Though it lacked the shoulder-checking excitement of the UFC 148 weigh-ins, last night’s UFC on FUEL 4 weigh-ins were not without their fair share of close calls. Mainly, that of Rafael Natal, Francis Carmont, and Alex Caceres, who all had to drop trou in order to make weight for their scheduled contests with Andrew Craig, Karlos Vemola, and Damacio Page, respectively. Caceres went au naturale right off the get-go to make 136, whereas Natal and Carmont managed to shed a pound following the aforementioned removal of their trousers, which must have been lined with a paper thin piece of iron or had a ham sandwich in the back pocket. Mark Munoz, on the other hand, squeaked in at the 186 pound limit for his main event matchup with fellow wrestling standout Chris Wediman.
And speaking of ham sandwiches/UFC 148, Subway aficionado Jay Glazer sat down alongside Ariel Helwani and recently dispatched middleweight contender Chael Sonnen to break down tonight’s main event, as well as discuss Sonnen’s UFC 148 loss and his future in the sport after the weigh-ins had concluded. We gotta give props to Glazer, who came right out and asked Sonnen, “What the hell were you thinking with that spinning elbow?” to which Sonnen responded in good humor, “I wish I could tell you…but I fell down like a doofus and I gotta live with it.” That you do, Chael. That you do.
Check out both of those videos and the full weigh-in results after the jump, and make sure to swing by CagePotato at 7 p.m. EST, where we will be liveblogging all the action in between heated games of Battleshots.
Though it lacked the shoulder-checking excitement of the UFC 148 weigh-ins, last night’s UFC on FUEL 4 weigh-ins were not without their fair share of close calls. Mainly, that of Rafael Natal, Francis Carmont, and Alex Caceres, who all had to drop trou in order to make weight for their scheduled contests with Andrew Craig, Karlos Vemola, and Damacio Page, respectively. Caceres went au naturale right off the get-go to make 136, whereas Natal and Carmont managed to shed a pound following the aforementioned removal of their trousers, which must have been lined with a paper thin piece of iron or had a ham sandwich in the back pocket. Mark Munoz, on the other hand, squeaked in at the 186 pound limit for his main event matchup with fellow wrestling standout Chris Wediman.
And speaking of ham sandwiches/UFC 148, Subway aficionado Jay Glazer sat down alongside Ariel Helwani and recently dispatched middleweight contender Chael Sonnen to break down tonight’s main event, as well as discuss Sonnen’s UFC 148 loss and his future in the sport after the weigh-ins had concluded. We gotta give props to Glazer, who came right out and asked Sonnen, “What the hell were you thinking with that spinning elbow?” to which Sonnen responded in good humor, “I wish I could tell you…but I fell down like a doofus and I gotta live with it.” That you do, Chael. That you do.
Check out both of those videos and the full weigh-in results after the jump, and make sure to swing by CagePotato at 7 p.m. EST, where we will be liveblogging all the action in between heated games of Battleshots.
Weigh-in Video (starts at the 10 minute mark)
Interview with Chael Sonnen
When asked on the perceived illegality of the knee in question, Sonnen stated that:
Here’s the reality. We don’t do instant replay in this sport and we shouldn’t. It comes down to a judgement call and wherever the referee says the knee landed, officially, that’s where the knee landed. That’s an excellent official as they all are; he made his call and that’s the way it goes, and I will never complain or look back.
Helwani immediately brought up the recent decision by Sonnen’s camp to appeal the fight verdict, as it seemed somewhat contradictory to what Sonnen had just said, to which Sonnen replied that “We would never appeal a decision.” If that is truly the case, then I have just gained back a ton of respect for Sonnen. Now if only I could hold onto it for more than a week at a time. Sonnen also said that he would not even begin to consider retirement for at least a few more weeks, referring to but not mentioning the hasty, emotion-based retirements of guys like BJ Penn.
Preliminary Card (Facebook) Damacio Page (136 lbs.) vs. Alex Caceres (136 lbs.)
Chris Cariaso (125 lbs.) vs. Josh Ferguson (125 lbs.)
Rafael Natal (186 lbs.) vs. Andrew Craig (185 lbs.)
Marcelo Guimaraes (171 lbs.) vs. Dan Stittgen (170 lbs.)
Raphael Assuncao (136 lbs.) vs. Issei Tamura (135 lbs.)
Will Munoz follow through on his promise to throw some bombs? Will Beltran’s glorious return to the UFC at 205 lbs against the hard hitting Te Huna be all for naught? Will “The Angel of Death” fall prey to a submission yet again? Tune in tonight and find out.
(Munoz pays tribute to his favorite terrible fighter, Emmanuel Yarborough, by squashing a scrawny ginger less than 1/3rd his size.)
By Elias Cepeda
At first, what he said kind of passed by unnoticed, but when I caught it, I was forced to ask him to clarify. We were talking to UFC middleweight contender Mark Munoz about training camp for his UFC on FUEL 4 main event scrap tonight against Chris Weidman and thought to ask how things were going with the gym he owns, Reign Training Center.
Munoz opened up the Southern California fight gym a couple years ago and since that time it has grown to house not just 9-5ers seeking workouts, but some of the best fighters in the world as well. Munoz said the business was going swimmingly, spoke about some of the challenges of starting up and managing a gym and, almost in passing, mentioned that he led training for the guys.
Well, certainly not while he was in camp, right? Wrong, Munoz corrected. The fighter has, in fact, been his own head coach and trainer for all the fighters at Reign as he has readied to fight Weidman.
“I actually lead the training along with training myself,” Munoz said. “I’ve been coaching for awhile now and for me, I love running practices. I think about how to run practices and how to be able to breakdown technique and to be able to help the whole group. I’ve been doing it for over 10 years when it comes to Division I wrestling. Love to teach and to coach and get a good workout in the process. The guys love it too. They see the workouts and feel that they are catered to them. I’m glad I can accomplish both coach and competing. I’ve always wanted to do both but with wrestling you can’t really do it.”
Simultaneously fighting and coaching? That’s some Bill Russell and Pete Rose stuff right there.
(Munoz pays tribute to his favorite terrible fighter, Emmanuel Yarborough, by squashing a scrawny ginger less than 1/3rd his size.)
By Elias Cepeda
At first, what he said kind of passed by unnoticed, but when I caught it, I was forced to ask him to clarify. We were talking to UFC middleweight contender Mark Munoz about training camp for his UFC on FUEL 4 main event scrap tonight against Chris Weidman and thought to ask how things were going with the gym he owns, Reign Training Center.
Munoz opened up the Southern California fight gym a couple years ago and since that time it has grown to house not just 9-5ers seeking workouts, but some of the best fighters in the world as well. Munoz said the business was going swimmingly, spoke about some of the challenges of starting up and managing a gym and, almost in passing, mentioned that he led training for the guys.
Well, certainly not while he was in camp, right? Wrong, Munoz corrected. The fighter has, in fact, been his own head coach and trainer for all the fighters at Reign as he has readied to fight Weidman.
“I actually lead the training along with training myself,” Munoz said. “I’ve been coaching for awhile now and for me, I love running practices. I think about how to run practices and how to be able to breakdown technique and to be able to help the whole group. I’ve been doing it for over 10 years when it comes to Division I wrestling. Love to teach and to coach and get a good workout in the process. The guys love it too. They see the workouts and feel that they are catered to them. I’m glad I can accomplish both coach and competing. I’ve always wanted to do both but with wrestling you can’t really do it.”
Simultaneously fighting and coaching? That’s some Bill Russell and Pete Rose stuff right there.
To understand the significance and novelty of such a thing, one has to understand that training for a fight, or for high level sporting competition in general, is one of the most selfish endeavors humans undertake. Not selfish in a particularly bad way, but selfish nonetheless. During camp, everything is about the fighter scheduled to compete. The timing of everything from meals to training time to recreation time as well as the specifics of what those training sessions consist of revolves around the needs of the competing fighter. Everyone’s attention is on them.
So the idea of said fighter also making it his job to pay attention to the needs of the other fighters, to be the main person responsible for taking care of them in fact, is pretty rare and remarkable. And just like Rose and Russell must have had the complete respect and trust of their fellow players when they coached and managed while also playing, Munoz must have that from his teammates for this scenario to work out.
The “Filipino Wrecking Machine” says that he tries to create a familial environment and that goes a long way. “We have great fighters coming in and the gym has been attracting those guys because of the comradarie we have in the room,” he said.
“I try to create a comfortable environment, a fun environment where we step foot inside and everyone says hi to each other. There are no cliques. I’ve been to a lot of gyms where it was very cliquish. Somebody new would come in and you wanted to knock them out during sparring (laughs). But that isn’t a comfortable environment. So I like to plan events where we’re hanging out and develop a closer bond. When you have a close bond, the team pushes each other a lot more.”
Munoz has been very clear recently in saying that he believes he will deserve a title shot if he gets past Weidman. After all, he’s won four straight and seven of eight in the division overall. He was also set to face Chael Sonnen in January in a number one contender match before he had to pull out in order to get his elbow surgically repaired. Perhaps you remember vomiting upon seeing the results.
“I don’t know why I’ve been getting overlooked,” Munoz said. “I’ve been busting my butt for a long time.”
Of course, if Munoz does get the next middleweight title shot, he’ll have to face a former training partner and man he still considers a friend, champion Anderson Silva. “It’s nothing personal,” Munoz explained.
“I still consider him a friend and the greatest fighter, pound-for-pound, in the world and in the history of MMA. But at the same time, I feel like I’ve arrived. I want a chance at it. In an ideal world I would love for him to retire. But we know that sometimes it’s not an ideal world. So its gonna work out the way its gonna work out.”
But before he can even cross that bridge, Weidman is in Munoz’ way, who might be one win away from a title shot himself if he is able to secure a win tonight. In his last bout at UFC on FOX 2, he beat up former #1 contender Demian Maia, and he did it on incredibly short notice.
Weidman, like Munoz, comes from a wrestling background. But Munoz says he will still swing for the fences on the feet, with no regard for Weidman’s takedowns.
“The thing is, I have confidence in getting back to my feet. If he takes me down I’m going to pop back up. That’s how I train and that’s how I fight,” Munoz said.
“I’m going to get back up and am still going to throw bombs. That’s just who I am. I’m not a fighter willing to score points to win. I’m looking to end the fight in a moment.”
Can’t argue with that gameplan. At least not from a fan’s perspective.
(Then again, it seems to be working out pretty well for Clay Guida so far.)
Hell must have frozen over, because for once, we are in agreement with Dana White.
We’re not going to waste your time by recounting all of the endless press the issue of testosterone replacement therapy has received as of late, which would take us no less than twenty pages to complete. But needless to say, guys like Frank Mir are proving that damn near anyone can receive a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for TRT if they are willing to fill out the proper paperwork, and we’ve only begun to see the amount of fighters who will likely begin to hop on that bandwagon as time goes on.
But with his win at UFC 148, Anderson Silva basically proved that a vicious knee trumps TRT nearly 100 percent of the time, a notion that the UFC President really wishes he could drive home in one way or another. White recently sat down with ESPN’s Todd Grisham to discuss everything from fighter pay rates to the absolute sack of horseshit that was the Manny Pacquiao/Timothy Bradley decision. Being the polarizing subject that TRT is, Grisham brought up the possibility of the UFC having two fighters currently using testosterone as champions, were Chael Sonnen to defeat Silva and Dan Henderson to defeat Jon Jones, and what White would think of that. And we gotta say, we were rather impressed with Dana’s level-headed response. It was almost as if he had considered both sides of the story, rather than lashing out with personal attacks at the first person to speak up about a slightly sensitive issue. Like we said, the sky must be falling.
A full video interview is below.
(Then again, it seems to be working out pretty well for Clay Guida so far.)
Hell must have frozen over, because for once, we are in agreement with Dana White.
We’re not going to waste your time by recounting all of the endless press the issue of testosterone replacement therapy has received as of late, which would take us no less than twenty pages to complete. But needless to say, guys like Frank Mir are proving that damn near anyone can receive a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for TRT if they are willing to fill out the proper paperwork, and we’ve only begun to see the amount of fighters who will likely begin to hop on that bandwagon as time goes on.
But with his win at UFC 148, Anderson Silva basically proved that a vicious knee trumps TRT nearly 100 percent of the time, a notion that the UFC President really wishes he could drive home in one way or another. White recently sat down with ESPN’s Todd Grisham to discuss everything from fighter pay rates to the absolute sack of horseshit that was the Manny Pacquiao/Timothy Bradley decision. Being the polarizing subject that TRT is, Grisham brought up the possibility of the UFC having two fighters currently using testosterone as champions, were Chael Sonnen to defeat Silva and Dan Henderson to defeat Jon Jones, and what White would think of that. And we gotta say, we were rather impressed with Dana’s level-headed response. It was almost as if he had considered both sides of the story, rather than lashing out with personal attacks at the first person to speak up about a slightly sensitive issue. Like we said, the sky must be falling.
White’s response to the question, which comes at the 8:55 mark, went like this:
The bottom line is, the way that this TRT works, it’s absolutely 100 percent legal with the – let me explain one more thing. We’re regulated by the government. We’re really the only sport that’s actually regulated by the government and the government allows these guys to do this TRT. And basically over the next 10 years, sports science keeps getting better and better and better and the way that TRT works is as we get older your testosterone level drops, and this (TRT) is to replace it. The problem with it is, you got guys going ‘well if this much is good, this (more) must be great. That’s the problem and you will find guys that cheat even with the stuff that’s legal.
White continued that if you need to find a case against TRT usage, look no further than middleweight champ and pound for pound GOAT Anderson Silva:
That’s what we’re trying to – you make a good point and Anderson Silva said it at the press conference the other day. Anderson Silva, the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world has broke every record in the UFC and is the greatest fighter ever in mixed martial arts. He’s 38 years old, people don’t realize that, he’s not 28, he’s 38, and he’s not doing testosterone replacement therapy. This guy comes in 100 percent natural and he beats everybody. And something should be said for that, I don’t disagree. You know the guys who are using testosterone replacement therapy going up against a guy who isn’t, and this guy’s still the greatest in the world. So to me, the bottom line is you don’t need that junk. If you don’t abuse stuff earlier in your career, you’ll never need to use that kind of junk.
When asked if the decision were up to him regarding the legality of TRT in MMA (or at least the UFC), White stated that it would in fact be illegal.
As we’ve already heard from guys like former Heavy/Light Heavyweight champion Randy Couture, the potential pitfalls of TRT by far outweigh the benefits, and are becoming popular not out of necessity, but out of a desire to feel young again. Then again, Sonnen has shown that TRT can have a hell of an effect on the decision-making process, so maybe the natural fighters of the world would actually prefer to fight guys who are so confident in themselves as a result of “therapy” that they throw techniques well beyond their abilities. But what do you think, Potato Nation?
At this point, we’ve moved past the “illegal” knee, the shorts grabbing, and the vaseline that may or may not have marred Anderson Silva’s destruction of Chael Sonnen at UFC 148. We are not going to convince anyone to change their minds in regards to the gravity (or lack thereof) of Silva’s actions and whether or not they affected the outcome of the fight, and neither will you, because, as Ollie Weeks once said, “You can’t convince some people there’s a fire even when their hair is burning. Denial is a powerful thing.” And before you lash out at our use of the term “destruction” to describe the fight, first consider that that was the term used by Sonnen himself to describe Silva’s tenacity in the second round. According to Dana White, that is:
This is what Chael Sonnen said to me after the fight. He didn’t say it at the press conference, but he said it to me. He said, ‘I have so much respect for this guy, Dana. I’ve been competing in combat sports since I was seven years old. In that first round, when I was on top of him, hittin’ him with those big elbows, I felt him break. I broke him in that first round. He came back in the second round and destroyed me. I’ve never seen anybody do that, ever.
So now that we’ve all put aside our differences, we’d like to focus for a moment on the monumental mistake that was Sonnen’s spinning backfist, which has already begun to take on a life of its own as evident by the header gif. In fact, Sonnen’s mental error has become so popular over the past few days that his good friend and pro wrassler CM Punk decided to reenact the end of the fight on last night’s episode of WWE: Monday Night Raw. Although the result was as to be expected (a major whiff), Punk’s spinning backfist was arguably thrown with better technique.
At this point, we’ve moved past the “illegal” knee, the shorts grabbing, and the vaseline that may or may not have marred Anderson Silva’s destruction of Chael Sonnen at UFC 148. We are not going to convince anyone to change their minds in regards to the gravity (or lack thereof) of Silva’s actions and whether or not they affected the outcome of the fight, and neither will you, because, as Ollie Weeks once said, “You can’t convince some people there’s a fire even when their hair is burning. Denial is a powerful thing.” And before you lash out at our use of the term “destruction” to describe the fight, first consider that that was the term used by Sonnen himself to describe Silva’s tenacity in the second round. According to Dana White, that is:
This is what Chael Sonnen said to me after the fight. He didn’t say it at the press conference, but he said it to me. He said, ‘I have so much respect for this guy, Dana. I’ve been competing in combat sports since I was seven years old. In that first round, when I was on top of him, hittin’ him with those big elbows, I felt him break. I broke him in that first round. He came back in the second round and destroyed me. I’ve never seen anybody do that, ever.
So now that we’ve all put aside our differences, we’d like to focus for a moment on the monumental mistake that was Sonnen’s spinning backfist, which has already begun to take on a life of its own as evident by the header gif. In fact, Sonnen’s mental error has become so popular over the past few days that his good friend and pro wrassler CM Punk decided to reenact the end of the fight on last night’s episode of WWE: Monday Night Raw. Although the result was as to be expected (a major whiff), Punk’s spinning backfist was arguably thrown with better technique.
Video after the jump.
I’m no lawyer, so I’m simply asking this out of ignorance: Can the laws of plagiarism apply when a fake sport is blatantly ripping off a real one? I know the WWE has predetermined outcomes and all, but the fact that they’re now basing those outcomes on actual fights must mean that the UFC is winning the ratings battle. Or that CM Punk just wanted to pay tribute to arguably the biggest gaff of his friend’s career. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but this might be pushing it.
