Author: Karlo Silverio III Sevilla

UFC 130: Quinton “Rampage” Jackson Is Either Disinterested or Cold-Blooded

Almost every MMA fan is looking forward to an exciting and redemptive main event–after what many found to be a rather unsatisfying one in UFC 129.As a reward, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson claims “lack of excitement” over his …

Almost every MMA fan is looking forward to an exciting and redemptive main event–after what many found to be a rather unsatisfying one in UFC 129.

As a reward, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson claims “lack of excitement” over his upcoming fight versus Matt Hamill for the UFC 130 headliner (Rampage Jackson Not Excited With Matt Hamill for UFC 130 by Michael David Smith, May 17, 2011).

To account for this unpopular statement, he clarifies that, “Some MMA fans, they don’t hear something they want to hear and they jump all over you. If they really get to know me, I’m not really excited about anybody I fight. It’s my job; it’s my career. I don’t get excited anymore. I got almost 40 fights. I don’t get excited about anybody I fight.” (UFC 130 Fight Card: Rampage Jackson Talks Matt Hamill Fight on Conference Call by Sean Smith, May 20, 2011).

Maybe his long and storied MMA career is beginning to bore him and he’s now seriously contemplating on his budding movie career.

Or, if we interpret his above statement in a more positive light, he is now a true fight veteran and has become a cold-blooded murderer inside the Octagon. (Regardless if there are those who think he got away with murder versus Lyoto Machida.)

He is unfazed by any opponent, no matter how formidable. Nothing can shake his equanimity, whatever the odds.

Speaking of cinematic and cold-bloodedness in an already cinematic and, well, seemingly cold-blooded sport, my imagination conjures the following scene:

Quinton Jackson coolly enters the Octagon amid the heavy booing of the crowd. The referee gives Jackson and Hamill their last pointers in the middle of the Octagon, as the former UFC champion stares at his opponent with an expressionless look on his face.

The fight begins and with just 10 seconds into the round, Rampage lands a powerful right straight flush into Hamill’s left jaw, knocking the New Yorker out cold.

Uncharacteristically, Jackson doesn’t howl or raise his arms in victory. The blank countenance remains.

Joe Rogan climbs into the Octagon for the customary post-fight interview, but Jackson walks past him and swaggers back to his locker room with his posse, as the agitated crowd fills the arena with a deafening cacophony of cheers and boos.

The cheers for the fast finish, the boos for the wanton display of arrogance.

A cowboy villain entering a bar and shooting everyone in sight, then exits unhurriedly and nonchalantly mounts his horse, post-massacre.

Wisps of smoke arise from the still-warm twin revolvers tucked in opposite holsters attached to his belt, as he rides into the sunset as the original motion picture soundtrack of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly wafts through the desert air.

The problem with watching too many Westerns, lately.

UFC 130: Fight Card, News, Predictions, Results, and More!

 

I think we have Manny Pacquiao’s future MMA equivalent lurking here somewhere…for those interested in Philippine MMA, check out here the official Web site of our country’s premier MMA organization, the Universal Reality Combat Championship and our top MMA online forum at PinoyMMA.com.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 130: Quinton “Rampage” Jackson Is Either Disinterested or Cold-Blooded

Just when almost every MMA fan is looking forward to an exciting and redemptive main event after what many found rather unsatisfying in UFC 129’s, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson rewards us with his expressed “lack of excitement” over…

Just when almost every MMA fan is looking forward to an exciting and redemptive main event after what many found rather unsatisfying in UFC 129’s, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson rewards us with his expressed “lack of excitement” over his fight versus Matt Hamill in UFC 130 (Rampage Jackson Not Excited With Matt Hamill for UFC 130 by Michael David Smith, May 17, 2011).

To account for his unpopular prior statement, he clarifies that, “Some MMA fans, they don’t hear something they want to hear and they jump all over you. If they really get to know me, I’m not really excited about anybody I fight. It’s my job; it’s my career. I don’t get excited anymore. I got almost 40 fights. I don’t get excited about anybody I fight.” (UFC 130 Fight Card: Rampage Jackson Talks Matt Hamill Fight on Conference Call by Sean Smith, May 20, 2011).

Maybe his long and storied MMA career is beginning to bore him and he’s now seriously contemplating on his budding movie career.

Or, if we interpret his above statement in a more positive light, he is now a true fight veteran and has become a cold-blooded murderer inside the Octagon. (Regardless if there are those who think he got away with murder versus Lyoto Machida.)

He is unfazed by any opponent, no matter how formidable. Nothing can shake his equanimity, whatever the odds.

Speaking of cinematic and cold-bloodedness in an already cinematic and, well, seemingly cold-blooded sport, my imagination conjures the following scene:

”Quinton Jackson coolly enters the Octagon amid the heavy booing of the crowd. The referee gives Jackson and Hamill their last pointers in the middle of the Octagon, as the former UFC champion stares at his opponent with an expressionless look on his face.

”The fight begins and 10 seconds into the round, Rampage lands a powerful right straight flush into Hamill’s left jaw, knocking the New Yorker out cold.

”Uncharacteristically, Jackson doesn’t howl or raise his arms in victory. The blank countenance remains.

”Joe Rogan climbs into the Octagon for the customary post-fight interview, but Jackson walks past him and swaggers back to his locker room with his posse, as the agitated crowd fills the arena with a deafening cacophony of cheers and boos.

“The cheers for the fast finish, the boos for the wanton display of arrogance.”

A cowboy villain entering a bar and shooting everyone in sight, then exits unhurriedly and nonchalantly mounts his horse, post-massacre.

Wisps of smoke arise from the still-warm twin revolvers tucked in opposite holsters attached to his belt, as he rides into the sunset as the original motion picture soundtrack of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly fills the desert air.

The problem with watching too many Westerns, lately.

UFC 130: Fight Card, News, Predictions, Results, and More!

 

I think we have Manny Pacquiao’s future MMA equivalent lurking here somewhere…for those interested in Philippine MMA, check out here the official Web site of our country’s premier MMA organization, the Universal Reality Combat Championship and our top MMA online forum at PinoyMMA.com.

 

 

 

 

 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

MMA is Still Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea, Even Among Top Combat Sports Athletes

Nothing new here, really. As they say, to each his own.To quote my first MMA article published online, “(M)ixed martial arts is not everyone’s cup of tea—served in hot water flavored by the spectacle of two athletes engaged in hand-to-hand combat…

Nothing new here, really. As they say, to each his own.

To quote my first MMA article published online, “(M)ixed martial arts is not everyone’s cup of tea—served in hot water flavored by the spectacle of two athletes engaged in hand-to-hand combat, each trying to dispose of the other using a variety of grappling and striking techniques. Physical pain is its main infusion, and blood and bruises are natural extractions.

“It is violence against a fellowman or woman but of an amoral kind, a contest between two consenting adults bound by legal contract to beat each other to submission. It is hyped as ‘the world’s fastest growing sport,’ its fan base growing exponentially since the first UFC event was televised in 1993, proof that it is now the entertainment of choice of millions of mostly adult males across the globe.” (Why do MMA fighters enter their profession? June 16, 2010)

Still, even among combat athletes from the other and more “specialized” sports, e.g. boxing, wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, there are those who do not necessarily take to MMA like fish to water. (Though, I assume most of them are happy watching, anyway.)

This leaves many to ponder on “what-if-this-and-that-great-athlete-trains-and-fights-in-MMA?”

We may have prospective Olympic medalists and top amateur athletes in mind who could give UFC titlists a run for their money, and belts, in the future.

But that’s if and only if they start to train, then fight and eventually register a distinguished winning record in professional MMA.

In case we wonder why there seems to be a dearth of top wrestlers from Russia—the world’s strongest wrestling country—transitioning to MMA, maybe we can find the answer from its most famous wrestler.

Alexander “The Experiment” Karelin, the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler ever, when asked about his past foray into MMA (some say it was a “worked” professional wrestling bout) against Akira Maeda, answered rather tangentially, “The top priority of any athlete is to win the Olympic gold medal.”

It could stem from a belief and fidelity to a different value system, like believing more in the Olympic movement and its ideals than in professional, and highly commercialized, sports.

In the same way that legendary Cuban amateur boxer and three-time Olympic gold medalist Teofilo Stevenson refused to turn pro and fight Muhammad Ali in the 1970s, saying,”What is one million dollars compared to the love of eight million Cubans?”

And that becoming a professional athlete is tantamount to betraying the Cuban revolution and socialism. (I won’t comment on that.)

Also, one plausible reason is that, in some countries, government support for elite amateur athletes could be more than enough to financially sustain them and their families.

Thus, the lure of venturing into another sport like MMA—amateur or professional—is not so appealing.

To some, it’s the “comparative safety” issue.

World-renowned Brazilian Jiujitsu Master Jean Jacques Machado would rather compete in BJJ than MMA because he finds the latter too brutal and damaging to the human body. He even cited the wear and tear suffered by Rickson Gracie from fighting in the sport.

Thousands of years ago, a wrestler (some say “champion”) of the Isthmian Games during the Ancient Greek Olympics commented that pankration, MMA’s predecessor, was ”devoid of aesthetics.”

And he is, “incidentally,” Plato, the great philosopher.

De gustibus non est disputandum. In English: “In matters of taste there is no dispute.”

So some love and fight in MMA, and some don’t and won’t.

Well, that’s just the way it is.

 

I think we have Manny Pacquiao’s future MMA equivalent lurking here somewhere…for those interested in Philippine MMA, check out here the official website of our country’s premier MMA organization, the Universal Reality Combat Championship and our top MMA online forum at PinoyMMA.com.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 130: Quinton Jackson’s Patella and Why We Didn’t Need to Hear About It

So it was his patella after all.Or, in layman’s terms, his “knee” (and not the Spanish dish).The following is Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s explanation on why he slapped Rashad Evans in a nightclub. It comes with a bonus: the other reason why…

So it was his patella after all.

Or, in layman’s terms, his “knee” (and not the Spanish dish).

The following is Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s explanation on why he slapped Rashad Evans in a nightclub. It comes with a bonus: the other reason why Evans kicked his gluteus maximus last time they fought in the UFC, the first being octagon rust.

“Like Rashad came up to me and told me ‘I fought [Lyoto] Machida the same way he fought me.’ He come tell me stuff like that cuz he sour because I beat Machida and he got knocked the hell out by Machida. And he basically didn’t do anything against Machida, so he trying to get sour about that.

“He knows the only reason he beat me is because I was rusty and I was injured. If you go back and watch that fight he was punching me in my knee, my knee that was hurt. I never seen anybody punch anyone in the knee in MMA in all the years I been doing MMA. But somehow he knew my knee was injured” (MiddleEasy.com, May 9, 2011; italics added).

In case you lost count, he mentioned knee four times.

An ailing knee or any injury may be a valid reason for losing a fight.

The losing fighter, if given the benefit of the doubt, could be publicizing it post-fight simply as a matter of fact.

But he only makes it sound like a sorry excuse.

Leading into the fight, it’s a given that teammates, trainers and physicians must know about any injury or sickness afflicting the fighter, from mild to severe.

But you wouldn’t want your opponent to be in the know and exploit it—unless it’s your tactic to make him overconfident.

It’s a principle in combat sports not to expect your opponent to make your liability his liability.

You can’t make him limit his offensive options by obliging him to spare your injury.

You can’t go like, “Hey, Rashad! My knee’s hurt so don’t hit it while I hit every part of you as the rules allow.” (In fairness to Jackson, he implied that Evans was not supposed to know about it but “somehow he knew.”)

Tell your trainer, teammate, doctors and manager. From there, let the sports media and fans do their sleuthing without making their job easier.

Otherwise, if you think the severity of your injury will greatly disadvantage you and cause you to lose the fight—or worse—then don’t fight at all. And tell the world about it.

A UFC fighter can always text Dana White, “My head was crane-kicked last sparring session and it flew out of the window. I’ll just have myself sewn back together again and fight next time.”

Here’s praying that our UFC 130 main event fighters Quinton Jackson and Matt Hamill will be fighting fit and ready to rumble this May 28.

Especially after the cancellation of the original main event, Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard III, due to injuries.

By the way, has Hamill ever complained about his hearing conditions?

UFC 130 Results, News and More

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Manny Pacquiao and Georges St-Pierre: A Tale of Two Champions, Two Title Fights

“Writing is about making connections,” taught Carol Bly, the critically acclaimed American creative nonfiction author.And it’s easy to make connections between Georges St-Pierre and Manny Pacquiao, who fought on the consecutive Saturday nig…

“Writing is about making connections,” taught Carol Bly, the critically acclaimed American creative nonfiction author.

And it’s easy to make connections between Georges St-Pierre and Manny Pacquiao, who fought on the consecutive Saturday nights of April 30 and May 7, respectively. Disregarding the fact that one successfully defended his world title in MMA while the other one of his very own in boxing, we can acknowledge several similarities.

This slide show presents parallels between the two great champions and, since no two things are exactly the same, also their differences—from which we can glean more lessons about the world of professional combat sports. (As Yogi Berra quipped, “Their similarities are different.”)

Begin Slideshow

UFC 129: Fans Find St-Pierre vs. Shields Title Fight Exciting…to Talk About

UFC 129 was a true war theater of the absurd. A night of fantastic fights leading to a vexing main event that aroused more excitement before and after the fact than during.Just when I thought nobody in his right mind would bear the agony of watching th…

UFC 129 was a true war theater of the absurd. A night of fantastic fights leading to a vexing main event that aroused more excitement before and after the fact than during.

Just when I thought nobody in his right mind would bear the agony of watching the champion Georges St-Pierre and his challenger Jake Shields plod for 25 minutes again, I was proven wrong.

As it turns out, it’s true that our ever-reliable MMA fight analysts don’t sleep on the job inside their respective Situation Rooms.

And that they actually bothered to rewind and do a frame-by-frame analysis of the fight video is what separates them from casual fans.

It didn’t take long before Internet sites showing photos and slow-motion replays of the alleged eye pokes propagated like mushrooms—courtesy of our techie fans, er, I mean fight scientists.

Now what makes the past fight interesting is the hot debate swirling around it post-fight.

Now the buzz zeros in to a matter of sight, precisely the loss of it by St-Pierre in his left eye in the second round.

Was it caused by an eye poke or a legit jab?

If it was an eye poke (or pokes), was it intentional or not?

And if it was intentional, was it the main tactic of Shields and his camp to take home the UFC Welterweight Title?

And just how much did it adversely affect the champion’s game plan?

Apparently, in the eyes of some fans, Shields’ integrity as a fighter is now verbally poked by accusations, while St-Pierre’s lackadaisical performance finds absolution.

“If only St-Pierre’s left eye didn’t go blind, he would’ve won in convincingly dominating fashion,” some think.

The MMA public is divided between those who opine that Shields fought with malice and those who give him the benefit of the doubt that his finger only accidentally twitched toward his opponent’s eye every time within touching distance.

Still, there are others who insist that only knuckles landed on St-Pierre’s face.

There are, as expected, contradicting in-depth readings of the fight video. Here are samples from the comments on my previous article UFC 129 Results: Expect a Quantum Leap in Jake Shields’ Stand-up Striking.

“GSP was poked at least five times. I can say with reasonable certainty that two were successful..three of the pokes definitely seemed intentional. One was a thumb-out jab. The other two were jabs in which he opened his hand at the end of its extension. It’s very unlikely that the latter two were clinch attempts as Shields was moving backwards.”

“It really is difficult to say if it was intentional or not. I would like to believe that it wasn’t, because he does seem like a decent guy…The only real way to tell is to cross-reference his previous fights to see if these kinds of strikes are a trend. If this is the first time, then I would say there is little doubt it was intentional.”

A dissenter claims that,”My inexpensive DVD recorder has from 4 x slow up to 64 x slow or frame by frame. The PUNCH that did the damage was from the small knuckle of Shields’s left jab, it went right into the eye once and landed mostly on the same eye all night.”

How do you see it?

If you’re asking me, I foresee Frankie Edgar successfully retaining his lightweight title on UFC 130.

UFC 129 Results, News and More 


I think we have Manny Pacquiao’s future MMA equivalent lurking here somewhere…for those interested in Philippine MMA, check out here the official website of our country’s premier MMA organization, the Universal Reality Combat Championship and our top MMA online forum at PinoyMMA.com.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com