Ex-UFC Ring Card Girl Natasha Wicks Takes Her Talents to Invictus

We can debate until the cows come home about the hottest current ring card girl in the UFC. Most of you will probably say Arianny Celeste is the current queen of the ring, and you’d have a valid point. Some of you, perhaps a minority, will agree with m…

We can debate until the cows come home about the hottest current ring card girl in the UFC. Most of you will probably say Arianny Celeste is the current queen of the ring, and you’d have a valid point. Some of you, perhaps a minority, will agree with me when I say that Brittney Palmer is the hands-down winner of the current crop of card girls.

But there’s no debating one thing: of all the girls the UFC has employed to visually let you know what round you’re about to watch, Natasha Wicks is the best. She’s just the absolute best, and I won’t listen to you even if you try to argue with me.

Wicks was released from the UFC long before she was ready to go. She actually served less than a year in her official capacity, but she’ll never be gone from the one place it truly matters: our hearts.

And she’s actually coming back to the cage too. Wicks will return as the ring card girl for Invictus on April 28. What’s Invictus, you say? It’s an all-female fighting promotion.

You might be saying to yourself that this sounds like an awesome idea. You would be right. Former Strikeforce champion Marloes Coenen is on the event, and you’ll also recognize names like Liz Carmouche. The promoter behind the event, Shannon Knapp, has pulled together quite the list of talented female fighters. 

She also has quite the talented ring card girl.

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UFC’s Demian Maia Smartly Decides to Move to Welterweight

Grappling wizard Demian Maia has decided to move to welterweight.Per Maia’s Twitter account:Guys, now I ll moving down to 170 pounds. Next fight I ll be a welterwheight @ufcThis is a really smart decision for Maia for several reasons.He’s already fough…

Grappling wizard Demian Maia has decided to move to welterweight.

Per Maia’s Twitter account:

Guys, now I ll moving down to 170 pounds. Next fight I ll be a welterwheight @ufc

This is a really smart decision for Maia for several reasons.

He’s already fought Anderson Silva for the middleweight title, and we all remember how that one went.

I’d wager that not a single person in the entire world wants to see Maia fight Silva again after the atrocity they put on way back at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi. That fight will go down in history as one of the worst UFC pay-per-view main events of all time, and there’s zero chance Dana White will give the pair a chance to reprise that mistake.

So no, Maia has zero chance at ever getting another middleweight title shot as long as Silva is the champion, and the Spider isn’t really slowing down despite his advancing age. That’s reason enough for Maia to drop to welterweight.

And Maia isn’t really a big middleweight. Compared with other hulking middleweights in the division, Maia cuts very little to make the weight class. Making the move to 170 will be a more difficult process, but it should also give him a bit of a size advantage on everyone not named Thiago Alves. Because, you know, that guy is actually a light heavyweight.

My only request for Maia as he makes this momentous career decision? Please start using your jiu-jitsu a little bit more.

I know you want to show your newly developed striking skills, and I can respect that. But you’re still not a very good striker, while you are one of the best in the world at taking dudes to the ground and submitting them with ease. 

Please start doing more of that. We’d appreciate it.

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Gary Goodridge Story Highlights Dangers of CTE in MMA Competition

Remember last week when I said that Ben Fowlkes was the best MMA writer in the game? He proved it once again with yesterday’s excellent story on the mental and physical downfall of long-time MMA veteran Gary Goodridge. It’s a poignant story, a loo…

Remember last week when I said that Ben Fowlkes was the best MMA writer in the game? 

He proved it once again with yesterday’s excellent story on the mental and physical downfall of long-time MMA veteran Gary Goodridge. It’s a poignant story, a look at the day to day life of a fighter who stayed in the game long past his expiration date and is now suffering the consequences.

These days he spends most of his time in bed. He watches a lot of TV, probably ten hours a day, according to friends, and he’s more or less glued to his iPhone, which he uses as a sort of exterior memory bank. It reminds him who he needs to talk to and where he needs to be. At the same time, even the iPhone can only help him so much.

According to Mark Dorsey, who co-wrote Goodridge’s memoir, Gatekeeper: The Fighting Life of Gary “Big Daddy” Goodridge, the former UFC and K-1 fighter’s long-term memory is still “impeccable.” It’s the short-term he can’t get a grip on.

I’ve gone on trips with him and we’ll be in the hotel at night and he’ll ask me, ‘What did we do today?’ said Dorsey. I won’t give it to him right away and he’ll sit there and try to rack his brain and remember.

Much has been made about the effects of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) on the lives of former football players, hockey stars and professional wrestlers. The disease affects the brain of otherwise happy and healthy men and has been named as the culprit behind the suicide deaths of numerous athletes.

When their brains are examined after death, they display the same kind of brown splotches—caused by the spread of tau proteins—as much older patients with advanced cases of Alzheimer’s disease.

Goodridge is the first notable MMA athlete to have his name and condition linked to CTE, but he won’t be the last.

The sport as a whole is a much safer environment than it was during Goodridge’s heyday, and fighters generally take much less punishment in the cage or ring than guys like Goodridge or Don Frye did.

Athletic commissions have gotten much better at identifying problem areas with fighters, and they have the power to deny licenses to guys who shouldn’t be fighting any more.

And Dana White has even taken it upon himself to police the sport, as evidenced in the forced retirement of Chuck Liddell—another superstar fighter who has displayed the mumbled speech often linked with CTE or pugilistic dementia.

We can still see the dangers of cage fighting and combat sports, though.

The horrific beating Joe Warren took last Friday night at the hands of Pat Curran is a perfect example. In Warren’s case, terrible refereeing was to blame, and Warren is attempting to fight safer by moving to his natural weight of 135.

We’ll never completely rid the sport of concussions and punishment to the head. It’s a combat sport, after all, and this kind of thing is unavoidable. But we should continually strive to identify fighters like Goodridge, who shouldn’t be in the cage, guys who have taken too much punishment over the course of long careers.

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TUF Live’s Jeremy Larsen May Be the First Injury Casualty on New Show

The Nevada State Athletic Commission today announced that they’ve suspended The Ultimate Fighter Live contestant Jeremy Larsen after he sustained a nasty laceration on his head during last Friday’s elimination round on FX.Larsen defeated Jeff Smith by …

The Nevada State Athletic Commission today announced that they’ve suspended The Ultimate Fighter Live contestant Jeremy Larsen after he sustained a nasty laceration on his head during last Friday’s elimination round on FX.

Larsen defeated Jeff Smith by unanimous decision to earn a spot in the house.

The NSAC suspended Larsen until April 9, with no contact until March 31. Luckily for Larsen, he can be cleared by doctors as soon as this Friday.

Under the old show format, Larsen may have been in danger of being forced off the show due to the injury. But the new live format expands the time that fighters have between fights, allowing them more time to heal from injuries such as the one Larsen suffered.

Steven Marrocco, the excellent reporter from MMAjunkie.com, talked to NSAC commissioner Keith Kizer about Larsen’s injury:

“He can’t fight this week,” Kizer said. “We’re hoping he won’t fight until April, but if they need him before then, our doctor will have to take a look at his scalp and see if it’s been healing. It will definitely be OK by the 9th of April. If it heals quickly, we can let him fight earlier. If not, they’ll have to have him in the last [fight of the next round].” 

It sounds like Larsen will be OK and won’t have to leave the show. The first round of the TUF Live tournament will play out over the course of seven or eight weeks, leaving Larsen plenty of time to heal.

But UFC President Dana White indicated on Twitter today that all may not be well in the Ultimate Fighter house:

“Just landed in Vegas from TUF Brazil and something bad has already happened on TUF here so on my way to the training center.”

Rumors are circulating that another cast member may be on his way out of the house. We’ll get more information in the coming days or on Friday night’s episode of the show.

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5 UFC Lightweights Who Should Drop to Featherweight

The UFC’s lightweight division is the most stacked weight class in the entire promotion.It wasn’t always this way. Two years ago, the idea of immediate rematches between B.J. Penn and Frankie Edgar wasn’t such a bad thing, mostly because there were no …

The UFC’s lightweight division is the most stacked weight class in the entire promotion.

It wasn’t always this way. Two years ago, the idea of immediate rematches between B.J. Penn and Frankie Edgar wasn’t such a bad thing, mostly because there were no other real contenders prepared to step up and face championship-level fighters.

Those days are over. The top of the division is crowded and filled with plenty of fighters who are deserving of title shots. But instead of getting their crack at gold, they’re forced to wait and take fights in the interim. It rarely works out in their favor: just ask Anthony Pettis and Jim Miller.

But 10 pounds below, the featherweight champion awaits without a truly interesting and deserving challenger. Jose Aldo needs an opponent, and Hatsu Hioki, easily the most deserving contender at the moment, just doesn’t interest the masses.

Hioki challenging for the title doesn’t even interest me, and I’m a journalist and hardcore fan. 

But it’s a situation that is easily rectified. There are plenty of lightweights who sit just outside of title contention, but they can jump directly into the championship fray by dropping weight and moving to featherweight.

For most of these names, all they need is one solid featherweight win and they’ll either earn a title shot or be very close to title contention. Sounds like a good deal, right?

Let’s take a look at five lightweights who should seriously consider the drop.

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Anderson Silva Says He May Fight 10 More Years, and That Sounds Awesome

Anderson Silva has seemingly decided to invade Randy Couture’s territory.At 37 years old, Silva has often been linked with retirement despite the fact that he’s still the best fighter in the world and shows no real signs of slowing down. Age certainly …

Anderson Silva has seemingly decided to invade Randy Couture’s territory.

At 37 years old, Silva has often been linked with retirement despite the fact that he’s still the best fighter in the world and shows no real signs of slowing down. Age certainly isn’t having much of an effect on him, and a win over Chael Sonnen this summer in Brazil will effectively clean out the middleweight division. Yes, again.

Silva’s manager, Ed Soares, has been discussing Silva’s possible retirement for quite some time. But Silva himself recently told Sport Globo TV that he may fight another 10 years. Wouldn’t that be something?

Everyone thinks that. I’ve imagined myself in a lake, fishing with my grandchildren and my wife calling me into the house … joke. Not thought of yet. I think I still have another ten-year career, but have not discussed my contract with the UFC. After this fight I think there are still two or three, I’m not sure. They just call me and say they need the Spider. And then I go.

I can’t imagine a world where Anderson Silva dominates the middleweight division for another 10 years. But I’m also not putting it past him. 

Silva also came out strongly once again on Sonnen. It’s obvious that Silva isn’t happy that he must fight the Gangster from West Lin a second time, but he also seems to understand the business aspects of it. But that doesn’t mean he’s happy about it.

The truth is this. He is an athlete who got caught doping, I fought against him bruised, had problems with American justice, respects nothing, did not respect our country. What’s it mean? Nothing.

I respect the views and position of the promoters of the fight, the owners of the event, but I think he should not have a chance to fight me again. But this is not me who has to decide. I will prepare to fight like against any other opponent. But he disrespected our idols, who made history in the sport, like Lance Armstrong.

This guy is tricky, he has some personal problem with himself. The emphasis that the Brazilian media give this guy is bad. If any Brazilian said what he said about the USA, and American Idols, we would not even have the same opportunity to enter the country or to speak in American media. I think that Brazilians need to be more patriotic as Americans are. When I come out of Brazil, and I’ve fought in England, Japan, Korea, I always represent my country and the Brazilian people, apart from my personal side, as my family and my team.

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