(Shogun, seen here at his all-time favorite vacation getaway.)
Not many of us could make sense of how Mauricio Rua wound up paired against Brandon Vera for the main event of UFC on FOX 4, especially when considering that a fighter of equal to greater relevance in Glover Teixeira had been favored as a replacement against Rua in Thiago Silva’s absence. “The Truth” has not fought since eeking out a decision victory over the now retired Elliot Marshall in October of 2011, and hasn’t looked like his aggressive, take no prisoners self since UFC 65. Teixeira, on the other hand, is on a 16 fight win streak, and although he is of lesser name value, would surely make for a better fight against Rua in our opinion.
Dana White initially reported that when offered the fight, Shogun’s camp wanted “nothing to do with” Teixeira, a claim that was almost instantly rebuked by Shogun’s camp. Oddly enough, after his camp rebuked such a claim, they immediately accepted a match against Vera, leading one to believe that maybe DW wasn’t bullshitting us as he’s been accused of doing before.
Well during the UFC on FX 3 post fight press conference, White divulged into the “he said/she said” speculation a little further, stating that Shogun was so against fighting Teixeira that he was willing to be cut before taking a fight with him.
A full video of the interview and transcription await you after the jump.
(Shogun, seen here at his all-time favorite vacation getaway.)
Not many of us could make sense of how Mauricio Rua wound up paired against Brandon Vera for the main event of UFC on FOX 4, especially when considering that a fighter of equal to greater relevance in Glover Teixeira had been favored as a replacement against Rua in Thiago Silva’s absence. “The Truth” has not fought since eeking out a decision victory over the now retired Elliot Marshall in October of 2011, and hasn’t looked like his aggressive, take no prisoners self since UFC 65. Teixeira, on the other hand, is on a 16 fight win streak, and although he is of lesser name value, would surely make for a better fight against Rua in our opinion.
Dana White initially reported that when offered the fight, Shogun’s camp wanted “nothing to do with” Teixeira, a claim that was almost instantly rebuked by Shogun’s camp. Oddly enough, after his camp rebuked such a claim, they immediately accepted a match against Vera, leading one to believe that maybe DW wasn’t bullshitting us as he’s been accused of doing before.
Well during the UFC on FX 3 post fight press conference, White divulged into the “he said/she said” speculation a little further, stating that Shogun was so against fighting Teixeira that he was willing to be cut before taking a fight with him.
(The question comes around the 2:50 mark.)
Here’s what The UFC Prez had to say when questioned on the issue:
Because he absolutely refused to fight him. He would rather be cut than fight him. You know what, it was one of those very wierd situations to hear one of the top five guys in the world say I’d rather be cut than fight a guy who isn’t ranked. And the reason that they were saying was because oh he’s not top ten. But then when we offer him Brandon Vera he took it in two seconds. Vera isn’t top ten either.
Someone asked me this question earlier, but the reality is that Shogun is a guy whom I respect, he been in a million wars with all the best in the world, but for some reason he does not wanna fight this dude Glover. And you know me, if you don’t want me to tell the truth, don’t say that stuff to me on the phone. That’s exactly what happened, that’s exactly the way it went down.
And me and Lorenzo said ‘Listen dude, you can’t be turning down fights at this level. With the money you’re making and where you are ranked in the world, you don’t turn down fights at this level. We might have to cut you’ and he said ‘I’d rather be cut than fight him.’
Where one can make the argument that a fight with Teixeira does little to nothing for Shogun’s status in the UFC, the same goes twice over for Vera. Say what you want about “The Truth’s” accolades and list of past opponents, but Vera is nowhere near ready for a fight with Shogun at this point in his career. As for Mauricio, it’s like DW said — he isn’t in the position to be turning down any fights in the UFC. Yes he’s a legend, but the fact is, he gets paid to fight whoever the UFC deems fit for him to fight. Plus, he’s gone win-loss in his past six fights, with only one of those victories coming over a fighter who was truly in his prime (Machida).
If he doesn’t like the fights he’s being offered, he should retire or asked to be released from his contract; it’s as simple as that. The fact that the UFC has basically catered to his demands by giving him a fight with Vera, who is even further down the rankings than Teixeira at this point, is both nonsensical and counter-intuitive to the point they are trying to make. But it’s not like they’re going to release a commodity as hot as Shogun on a whim, so perhaps it was just an empty threat more than anything.
The only reason anyone would even tune into Shogun/Vera is for the chance to see a vintage Shogun performance, and as we mentioned earlier, placing it as the headliner of a UFC on FOX card surely wont help the promotion’s ever-dwindling ratings on the network. Personally, Shogun’s ducking of this fight kind of leaves the impression that he doesn’t exactly have the title picture in mind, or would rather just take the easiest path to that shot as possible.
But what do you think of this, Potato Nation? Should Shogun be punished for such a move rather than rewarded, or has he somehow earned the right to tell his bosses how what to do?
(A stranglehold on the competition, or on the sport in general?)
We don’t know about you, but as we were watching last weekend’s UFC on FX 3 event in our various states of drunken stupor, we couldn’t help but notice a few glaring observations. The first was that the term “dicknailed” will always be both appropriate and hilarious when describing knockouts like the one Mike Pyle delivered on Josh Neer in the first round of their welterweight affair. The second revelation, however, was much more disheartening. As we looked past the fighters and into the stands, it was pretty shocking to see how little of a crowd was actually in attendance. “What is this, a Super Fight League card?” we said to ourselves, then collectively tweeted to one another like a bunch of snickering high school girls. But the simple truth is, our Stalter and Waldorf attitudes were nothing more than a defense mechanism, a cover, if you will, for something we feared might be happening: The UFC is stretching themselves a little thin.
Sure, UFC on FX 3 was as under-promoted as it was lacking any sort of star power, so much so that I will personally admit to all but completely forgetting about its existence until BG reminded us why we should be stoked in the first place. And sure, as with this season of The Ultimate Fighter, the fact that the card was scheduled for a Friday night surely didn’t help gain any new viewers either (a move that should most certainly be retracted next season if TUF ever hopes to recover ratings wise). Be that as it may, the real problem with last weekend’s card was certainly not that of the fight quality (because they were all great fights), but rather part of the looming, aforementioned oversaturation problem the UFC may find themselves facing. And here’s why.
(A stranglehold on the competition, or on the sport in general?)
We don’t know about you, but as we were watching last weekend’s UFC on FX 3 event in our various states of drunken stupor, we couldn’t help but notice a few glaring observations. The first was that the term “dicknailed” will always be both appropriate and hilarious when describing knockouts like the one Mike Pyle delivered on Josh Neer in the first round of their welterweight affair. The second revelation, however, was much more disheartening. As we looked past the fighters and into the stands, it was pretty shocking to see how little of a crowd was actually in attendance. “What is this, a Super Fight League card?” we said to ourselves, then collectively tweeted to one another like a bunch of snickering high school girls. But the simple truth is, our Stalter and Waldorf attitudes were nothing more than a defense mechanism, a cover, if you will, for something we feared might be happening: The UFC is stretching themselves a little thin.
Sure, UFC on FX 3 was as under-promoted as it was lacking any sort of star power, so much so that I will personally admit to all but completely forgetting about its existence until BG reminded us why we should be stoked in the first place. And sure, as with this season of The Ultimate Fighter, the fact that the card was scheduled for a Friday night surely didn’t help gain any new viewers either (a move that should most certainly be retracted next season if TUF ever hopes to recover ratings wise). Be that as it may, the real problem with last weekend’s card was certainly not that of the fight quality (because they were all great fights), but rather part of the looming, aforementioned over-saturation problem the UFC may find themselves facing. And here’s why.
As the UFC has increased its number of fight cards seemingly exponentially over the past few years, each individual card has in turn lost a significant amount of hype amongst its audience. This may just be subjectivity on our part, but we feel as if most of you would more or less agree with this point. We’re not going to act like the UFC’s marketing department doesn’t know how to milkthe shit out of a “grudge match” or title fight, but when comparing the UFC’s schedule, say, five years ago, to its current one, the most obvious difference one can notice is the amount of cards held per year. In 2007, the UFC held 19 events, with an average of one pay-per-view card being held each month with some Fight Night and TUF Finale cards sprinkled throughout. In 2011, the UFC put out 26 cards, with nine of them being either Fight Night, TUF Finale, or UFC Live type cards, which have never done great in terms of viewership. Although there may not be a direct correlation between these two things, would it surprise you to learn that last year was the UFC’s worst year for PPV buys since 2008, with the average buy rate being the worst since 2007? The UFC’s total buyrate dropped from 9.215 million in 2010 to just 6.79 million last year, and while Dana White is willing to pass off last weekend’s abysmal attendance/TV ratings to Florida being a shitty place for MMA, we think there may be other issues at hand. For instance, the UFC’s last trip to Florida, which was headlined by Rashad Evansvs. Sean Salmon, drew both a higher gate and attendance than last weekend’s event.
But before we get into all that, we’d like you to think back to mid-2007, if your brains aren’t too clogged with malted hops and bong resin to do so. Chuck Liddell was still the baddest man on the planet (until May 26th came around) and Randy Couture had just capped off the most improbable career comeback in ever by defeating Tim Sylvia at UFC 68 in March, capturing the heavyweight title once again in the process. Sound familiar? It should, because to this day, UFC 68 still holds the record for being the largest attended MMA event in the United States.
As you can see, it’s not like the cards just a few years ago were exactly stacked with more talent compared to today’s average card. Then why, pretell, were we seemingly more excited for them? The answer is simply because just five years ago, it was almost a privilege to witness a UFC event. We’re not trying to act like hipsters here, but before the UFC started gaining network deals left and right, it wasn’t every weekend that we were treated to the gift that is a fight card, as is nearly the case today.
When big fights were more sparsely scattered throughout the year, each individual card was given a few weeks more time to stew, if you will, and gain interest from any on-the-fence fans that may have existed at the time. As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and the UFC’s current policy of jamming two, and sometimes three cards into a month gives even the most enthusiastic fans little time to truly take stock of a given fight before another is billed as “the next big thing in the ______ division.”
As the kind of fan that simply cannot get enough of the sport, the idea of being treated to more fights for free excited me more than when I received my first Nintendo 64 for Christmas, but even I am a little overwhelmed by the amount of unknown and less than intriguing matchups that are being put before me these days. Then again, fans like myself (and most of the Potato Nation staff/readers) are not the kind of fans that the UFC is trying to reel in. Because the “hardcore” fans will always stand by the sport we love, until it becomes insanely obvious that the fights are being fixed, that is. The UFC is trying to bring in new markets, different crowds, and wider audiences to truly lift the sport into the realm of the NBA and NFL, but the difference between the “major” sports and the UFC is that those sports have an off season for both fans and players to recover, rebuild their rosters, and hype the upcoming season. The fact the the UFC has no off period is both a blessing and a curse, because it gives the fans so little time to do this. The closest thing to an off season an MMA fan ever had used to be the four or so weeks off in between cards, but the abundance of events to spring up in the past few years have perhaps spoiled us a bit in the process. In short, there’s a reason that March Madness blows the roof off of most other sporting events in terms of pure hype and interest. In fact, we guarantee that most of you, college basketball fans or not, at least filled out one bracket to partake in the festivities this year. Hell, your grandmothers probably did.
But the problem the UFC is facing is that, by simply delivering quantity over quality, they might just be risking over-saturating their market in terms of interest. The fact that injuries have wiped out nearly every fight we were looking forward to this summer surely isn’t helping matters, but the problems these weak cards face could just as easily be solved by combining the best matchups from a couple of cards into one stacked lineup. Let’s be real here, Aldo vs. Koch (now Faber vs. Barao), Munoz vs. Weidman, and Shogun vs. Vera are pretty pathetic headliners for a sport that has nearly acquired a monopoly on the sport’s top talent, and unless there are some major changes made, the buyrate for these events will likely reflect the lack of exciting matchups at hand. While combining/spacing events may mean that the promotion has to sideline, or even cut, some of it’s lesser fighters is an unfortunate side effect, but the UFC actually has the roster to deliver amazing cards capable of reaching the Brock Lesnar or Jon Jones levels of PPV buys every time if those in charge would just space out them out on occasion.
Look no further than the UFC on FOX’s downwardly spiraling ratings if you need proof of this. The first event, which only featured one fight, mind you, reeled in over five and a half million viewers. Why? Because the one and only fight they showed was a title fight between an undefeated champion and the most deadly number one contender known to man. The fight sells itself. Trying to sell a pair of “number one contender” bouts between Rashad Evans and Phil Davis or Jim Miller and Nate Diaz is not as easy of a task, regardless of how good (or in Evans/Davis’ case, bad) the fights are, simply because there is not as much at stake to garner interest. Again, last minute injuries were partially to blame for some of the FOX ratings, but so were the matchups. The upcoming UFC on FOX 4 event will likely see an even farther drop down the rankings due to this same issue as well.
Look at it this way, you wouldn’t headline a PPV card with any of those fights excluding Velasquez/dos Santos, and perhaps that is what some of the new fans are starting to realize. Being a business that wants to make money, the UFC saves its best cards for PPV’s, because who wouldn’t, and shell out mediocre to above average cards for live TV. And some fans may be sick of being fed the scraps.
To reiterate, I personally will never complain about free fights, but am rather simply pointing out what seems to be a trend in the UFC’s plateau of popularity as of late. And I’d rather not have my ass chewed out by DW for making such an observation, so at this point, I’d like to turn the focus on you Taters. Do you think the UFC could be giving its new fans too much, too fast? Or is even bringing up such a notion insanely idiotic?
(If you’ve ever seen the kind of bedbugs that Oakland produces, then you’d be less inclined to call Chael a cheater is all we’re saying.)
Well, well, well. As if it wasn’t bad enough that a mild-mannered, unassuming guy like Chael Sonnen lost *his* UFC middleweight championship due to a misunderstanding of the rules back at UFC 117, and shortly thereafter found himself thrust into the center of an elaborate conspiracy (that’s right, conspiracy) that attempted to invalidate the four and a half round ass whooping he laid out on Anderson Silva, now he has this to deal with this. The poor guy.
You see, Potato Nation, when you become the best at something, be it sports, politics, or whatever else, the common folk can’t help but become jealous of your accomplishments, to the point that they will go out of their way to try and discredit what you have worked so hard to achieve. Such was the case for Herman Cain, and now it appears that none other than HH Chael Sonnen has found himself in the public’s crosshairs as well. As we all know, Sonnen is the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, bar none, and because of this, everyone with a University of Phoenix Health Care degree is trying to use their “science” to tear him down. Even though he was granted a therapeutic use exemption to help him deal with his inability to produce testosterone, a real, crippling disease that many MMA fighters face, haters are still coming out of the woodwork to try and soil the name of a man who literally defines “upstanding citizen” with his every action.
Today’s mountebank is none other than MMAJunkies go-to medicine man, Dr. Johnny Benjamin, who boldly claimed that the only reason Sonnen’s body cannot produce the testosterone it should is due to the fact that he definitely used steroids in the past. Here’s what he told BloodyElbow:
Was Chael Sonnen a big time collegiate wrestler? Yes he was. I’m going to opine and say to you, there’s no way in the world you get to the level of collegiate wrestling that Chael Sonnen was at, with hypogonadism. Let me explain to you why. Hypogonadism means that the testes did not produce enough testosterone for one to normally mature. He wasn’t on TRT as a teenager. He became this big, muscled up monster and NCAA wrestler with hypogonadism? Hell no.
(If you’ve ever seen the kind of bedbugs that Oakland produces, then you’d be less inclined to call Chael a cheater is all we’re saying.)
Well, well, well. As if it wasn’t bad enough that a mild-mannered, unassuming guy like Chael Sonnen lost *his* UFC middleweight championship due to a misunderstanding of the rules back at UFC 117, and shortly thereafter found himself thrust into the center of an elaborate conspiracy (that’s right, conspiracy) that attempted to invalidate the four and a half round ass whooping he laid out on Anderson Silva, now he has this to deal with this. The poor guy.
You see, Potato Nation, when you become the best at something, be it sports, politics, or whatever else, the common folk can’t help but become jealous of your accomplishments, to the point that they will go out of their way to try and discredit what you have worked so hard to achieve. Such was the case for Herman Cain, and now it appears that none other than HH Chael Sonnen has found himself in the public’s crosshairs as well. As we all know, Sonnen is the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, bar none, and because of this, everyone with a University of Phoenix Health Care degree is trying to use their “science” to tear him down. Even though he was granted a therapeutic use exemption to help him deal with his inability to produce testosterone, a real, crippling disease that many MMA fighters face, haters are still coming out of the woodwork to try and soil the name of a man who literally defines “upstanding citizen” with his every action.
Today’s mountebank is none other than MMAJunkies go-to medicine man, Dr. Johnny Benjamin, who boldly claimed that the only reason Sonnen’s body cannot produce the testosterone it should is due to the fact that he definitely used steroids in the past. Here’s what he told BloodyElbow:
Was Chael Sonnen a big time collegiate wrestler? Yes he was. I’m going to opine and say to you, there’s no way in the world you get to the level of collegiate wrestling that Chael Sonnen was at, with hypogonadism. Let me explain to you why. Hypogonadism means that the testes did not produce enough testosterone for one to normally mature. He wasn’t on TRT as a teenager. He became this big, muscled up monster and NCAA wrestler with hypogonadism? Hell no.
The truth of the matter is, you could never get to that level, because you’re not going to have the muscle mass and strength to get you there. They’re going to run you over. Your body will not allow you to develop enough muscle and strength to compete at your size. If he has hypogonadism, it’s from one thing, and one thing only, because he treated himself with steroids in the past, and wrecked his testes. That’s it.
We may be out of line here, “Dr.” Benjamin, but how dare you. To think that a straight-laced guy like Chael would even consider taking advantage of the system is not only shocking, but could be considered slander as well.
Obviously we’re only kidding here, as Benjamin’s claims, though lacking actual proof, aren’t exactly outside the realm of possibility when dealing with a habitual line stepper such as Sonnen. But what does that mean for guys like Dan Henderson, Frank Mir, and the other MMA fighters that have applied for TRT exemption? All of them couldn’t have used roids in the past, right? Oh how the plot thickens.
It’s a conflict of interest. If you’re going to look like you’re a fair organization that’s trying to create a level playing field for everyone, then you can’t do it yourself. The problem is, our big guys never test positive, but your fringe guys do, and get exposed.
If you know something that may wreck the biggest name in your sport, and you’re the only one that knows, will you expose it? If the guys who are the very biggest draws test positive, would you report it? It’s like if a tree falls in the woods, did it make a noise. It’s a real gut check at that point. You’re going to ruin a whole card if your main event guy tests positive? You can’t put yourself in that position. You have to let somebody else do it, and if a test is positive, it’s positive. You never touched it. You’ve got nothing to do with it. You’re not protecting or shielding anyone.
Dr. Benjamin definitely makes another good point here, and one that I hadn’t really considered when thinking over this issue. Imagine if Alistair Overeem’s horsepiss was caught by the UFC and the UFC alone. Do you think that they’d cost themselves one of the biggest cards/matchups of the year due to a high T/E ratio? Methinks not.
If you are one of those conspiracy theorists out there who believe that Ronda Rousey sold her soul to the devil for the Ultimate Armbar of Absolute Victory (perhaps we’re naming that a little soon), then it’s time for a wake up call. Aside from Ronda’s extensive judo background, her ability to maim and disfigure her female counterparts is equal parts experience and genetics. Because believe it or not, her mother, Dr. Ann Maria Rousey DeMars, was the first American woman to ever win a World Judo Championship. How’d she do it, you ask? Mainly through the help of her friends; Harai Goshi, Uchi Mata, and Mr. Armbar.
Well Taters, it seems that Ronda’s mom has taken some time out of her busy schedule to bestow some knowledge upon us all, via her personal blog. Today’s lesson is titled “How to do a Perfect Armbar.” Enjoy:
If you are one of those conspiracy theorists out there who believe that Ronda Rousey sold her soul to the devil for the Ultimate Armbar of Absolute Victory (perhaps we’re naming that a little soon), then it’s time for a wake up call. Aside from Ronda’s extensive judo background, her ability to maim and disfigure her female counterparts is equal parts experience and genetics. Because believe it or not, her mother, Dr. Ann Maria Rousey DeMars, was the first American woman to ever win a World Judo Championship. How’d she do it, you ask? Mainly through the help of her friends; Harai Goshi, Uchi Mata, and Mr. Armbar.
Well Taters, it seems that Ronda’s mom has taken some time out of her busy schedule to bestow some knowledge upon us all, via her personal blog. Today’s lesson is titled “How to do a Perfect Armbar.” Enjoy:
Random arm bar notes: I. How to do a perfect arm bar
Let’s suppose you are in a tournament, or even practice, and you have the great good fortune to have an opponent beneath you and you get hold of your opponent’s arm. I am going to assume that your opponent is not an idiot and having grasped the severity of the situation will grab on to his own arm for dear life. How to do a perfect arm bar, according to me.
1. Have both hands at your opponent’s wrist, locking the forearm against your body.
2. Have both of your legs across the opponent’s body, one on either side of said arm (I learned to refer to things as “said” from reading too many contracts)
3. Rotate toward the opponent’s head to break the arm free
4. Rotate back toward the opponent’s hips so you are now at a perfect 270 degree angle from the opponent’s body (for non-math majors, a 270 degree angle is shown below. This is nothing if not a full-service blog)
5. Legs are squeezed together holding the opponent tight at the shoulder, with your thighs
6. Pinch knees tight together, touching, allowing no space for the opponent to pull his arm through if he did by some miracle manage to pull his wrist free,
7. Legs are bent, curling his body back toward you with your feet. (If you’ve ever done the leg curl at the gym, it’s that motion. If you’ve never done a leg curl, what the heck is wrong with you?)
8. Arch your hips to apply the arm bar. If you have ever had a boyfriend, yeah, it’s that motion. (Unless you’re a gay male in which case I am not sure.)
As you can see, Ronda has not only inherited her death-like vice grip from Ann, but a good deal of her wit as well. But you heard her, ladies! Get out there and start practicing armbar “techniques” on your boyfriends, husbands, or any random mixed martial arts bloggers that you catch eyes with from across the room/bar. Seriously, DO IT.
Here at CP, we really hate to keep reiterating the same point over and over again, but in this case, we feel the need to make an exception. As you should all know by now, Nick Ring is pretty much the epitome of masculinity. When he’s not making sweet love to a woman bald eagle style, he is more than likely patrolling the Canadian countryside on a horse made of crystal, handing out life lessons to those he happens to pass by. Though they won’t admit it, it is a common understanding that the sons of Ring’s opponents wish that he was their dad. A fun fact about Ring: he once held an opponent’s wife’s hand in a jar of acid at a birthday party. So basically, if you ever find yourself within Ring’s crosshairs, it is already too late.
Unfortunately, a group of ten or so rambunctious Canadian teenagers had never read Lord of the (Promise) Rings before they decided to attack a couple in front of the Calgary native, and boy did they pay for it.
Calgary’s own UFC fighter, Nick Ring, who had just finished a yoga session and went to Starbucks to get a coffee (Ed note: Like we said, dude’s a BAMF), saw an assault across the street and he wasn’t about to let it go.
Ring – a 33-year-old mixed martial arts fighter who is gearing up for UFC 149 in Calgary next month – was leaving the coffee shop at Mac leod Trail and 94th Avenue when he thought he saw a group of about 10 people beating up a couple to steal the girl’s backpack.
“I did not like what I saw and I wasn’t going to stand around and watch that happen. It was a crime and it was completely wrong,” said Ring.
“I’m not going to let anything like that happen if I’ve got anything to say about it. Not a chance.”
More from this story after the jump.
(Criminals beware: This man will eff you up.)
Here at CP, we really hate to keep reiterating the same point over and over again, but in this case, we feel the need to make an exception. As you should all know by now, Nick Ring is pretty much the epitome of masculinity. When he’s not making sweet love to a woman bald eagle style, he is more than likely patrolling the Canadian countryside on a horse made of crystal, handing out life lessons to those he happens to pass by. Though they won’t admit it, it is a common understanding that the sons of Ring’s opponents wish that he was their dad. A fun fact about Ring: he once held an opponent’s wife’s hand in a jar of acid at a birthday party. So basically, if you ever find yourself within Ring’s crosshairs, it is already too late.
Unfortunately, a group of ten or so rambunctious Canadian teenagers had never read Lord of the (Promise) Rings before they decided to attack a couple in front of the Calgary native, and boy did they pay for it.
Calgary’s own UFC fighter, Nick Ring, who had just finished a yoga session and went to Starbucks to get a coffee (Ed note: Like we said, dude’s a BAMF), saw an assault across the street and he wasn’t about to let it go.
Ring – a 33-year-old mixed martial arts fighter who is gearing up for UFC 149 in Calgary next month – was leaving the coffee shop at Mac leod Trail and 94th Avenue when he thought he saw a group of about 10 people beating up a couple to steal the girl’s backpack.
“I did not like what I saw and I wasn’t going to stand around and watch that happen. It was a crime and it was completely wrong,” said Ring.
“I’m not going to let anything like that happen if I’ve got anything to say about it. Not a chance.”
Ring described the scene as “like something out of a movie.”
He continued, “They were holding [the boyfriend] back and beating him up, as well. It was a really horrible thing to see.” According to the article, the girl was “getting her hair pulled and being kneed in the face” while this was occurring. And to think, all this came as a result of the female victim giving one of the female assailants “a dirty look.” Who knew that Canadians were capable of such lowly acts of mischief?
Anyway, after breaking things up, Ring and a bystander proceeded to chase down a couple of the assailants while calling the police, who managed to round up five or six more people. All of the assailants were between 15 and 17, so none of their names were released.
So there you have it. As has been proved manytimes before, MMA fighters are basically the superheroes of modern society, which explains why New York is still the cesspool of crime and injustice that it truly is. As Ring explained, it was only because of his extensive training/fighting background that he intervened in the first place:
It puts me in the position that I have the ability to help others when they need it. I was glad to be able to put my skills to use to help these people out.
I think that would be a scary position to be in if you’re witnessing that and feeling powerless. With all my training, I think I’m in a unique position to be able to handle myself against these kind of cowards.
A tip of the hat is in order, Mr. Ring, for your act of heroism. Those punks, on the other hand, should just be thankful that a certain Canadian welterweight champion wasn’t around at the time of the assault, because we all know how he feels about bullies, and we’d hate to see one of our sport’s greatest ambassadors maim an entire group of teenagers in broad view of a couple dozen people.
(Seen here: How Aleksander Emelianenko won his last fight.)
To get you in the mood for the brief, albeit saddening story we are about to tell you, you should first watch this. Now then…
Perhaps you are familiar with the tale of Henry Bemis, a lowly, nearly blind bank teller oft ridiculed for his near crippling obsession with the written word. Specifically, doggerel. Henry was a simple man, one who found more excitement in the whimsical tales of Charles Dickens than he did through actual interactions with his fellow man, a conundrum that had adverse effects on his occupation in more than a few instances. But what could he do? A passion is a passion, so in order to satisfy both his personal needs and his work requirements, Henry would often sneak into the bank’s vault during his lunch break and escape into whatever world his book of choice would provide for him.
On one such occasion, Henry happened to be reading the daily newspaper, which claimed that a new H-Bomb was “Capable of Total Destruction.” Before he could even grovel over such a morbid discovery, said bomb went off, killing not only everyone in the bank, but utterly destroying the entire planet. Left alone with only his thoughts, Henry decided to commit suicide via revolver to end his misery. But before he could do so, he found that the town’s library was amazingly still intact. Left with the quiet he so desperately craved, not to mention all the books he could read, Henry had basically found his utopia. That is, until he tripped and broke his glasses, rendering himself incapable of reading the very texts that he had found solitude in for as long as he could remember. Dooming him to a life of (literary) blue balls, if you will, and eventual suicide.
(Seen here: How Aleksander Emelianenko won his last fight.)
To get you in the mood for the brief, albeit saddening story we are about to tell you, you should first watch this. Now then…
Perhaps you are familiar with the tale of Henry Bemis, a lowly, nearly blind bank teller oft ridiculed for his near crippling obsession with the written word. Specifically, doggerel. Henry was a simple man, one who found more excitement in the whimsical tales of Charles Dickens than he did through actual interactions with his fellow man, a conundrum that had adverse effects on his occupation in more than a few instances. But what could he do? A passion is a passion, so in order to satisfy both his personal needs and his work requirements, Henry would often sneak into the bank’s vault during his lunch break and escape into whatever world his book of choice would provide for him.
On one such occasion, Henry happened to be reading the daily newspaper, which claimed that a new H-Bomb was “Capable of Total Destruction.” Before he could even grovel over such a morbid discovery, said bomb went off, killing not only everyone in the bank, but utterly destroying the entire planet. Left alone with only his thoughts, Henry decided to commit suicide via revolver to end his misery. But before he could do so, he found that the town’s library was amazingly still intact. Left with the quiet he so desperately craved, not to mention all the books he could read, Henry had basically found his utopia. That is, until he tripped and broke his glasses, rendering himself incapable of reading the very texts that he had found solitude in for as long as he could remember. Dooming him to a life of (literary) blue balls, if you will, and eventual suicide.
At 22-8, Magomedov was perhaps the most legit opponent the younger Emelianenko has faced since, well, the last time he faced Magomedov in 2009, wherein he earned a TKO victory in under 1 minute. While that may invalidate the previous sentence, the rematch did not go quite as smoothly for Emelianenko. As if you can even use the word “smoothly” to describe anything that has happened to Aleks in the past five or more years.
Taking place at a venue that fulfilled both fighters dreams of finally being able to walk down a barren, exposed hillside on their way to the ring, the first round of Emelianenko/Magomedov II was highlighted by some beautiful shots of Russian mountain ranges in the background and nothing else. Given Emelianenko’s ability to finish opponents without ever actually touching them, perhaps he was under the impression that his Jedi powers would lead him to victory once again.
But it was the second round where things ended in decidedly anticlimactic fashion, as has become the norm for Aleks. After landing a few decent combinations and battering Magomedov’s face in the process, Emelianenko’s fingers go all Kevin Burns on his opponent’s eye at the 2:49 mark, halting the action. Although the poke doesn’t appear to be all that significant, nor intentional, Magomedov is pissed nonetheless, and takes a moment to collect himself. When the bell signifying that third round is about to begin is rung, Magomedov claims that he cannot see (at least that’s what us English speakers took away from it) and after a couple minutes of confused shouting from everyone including the judges, the fight is called.
A doctor stoppage TKO win for Emelianenko at 5:00 of round two.
We know, we’re also confused.
Word has it that Emelanenko later stormed off, screaming “It’s not fair!” until he could no more, and for good reason. For, not unlike Mr. Bemis and his books, it seems that all Emelianenko really wants to do is have a good old fashioned throwdown, yet every opponent he steps into the ring against will simply not allow that to happen. And on the off chance that he actually finds a book worth reading, so to speak, Aleks drifts off before he can even finish the first chapter. We honestly feel a bit sorry for the guy, who appears all but unable to end a fight in satisfying faction these days.
Hopefully the win bonus he received for such an odd victory will help ease his pain.
