Author: kmowatt

Ok, so the above headline may be one of the strangest you’ve seen related to the sport of MMA, although if it had been BJ Penn saying it, maybe not so much? After all, Penn is a guy that has been known to lick the blood off his gloves shortly after a win, and that’s the other’s dude’s blood remember…( we could insert some contrived pop-culture vampire reference here to try to sound hip, but really, our vampire knowledge begins and ends with “The Lost Boys”)

At any rate, the headline stems from a recent interview that Wanderlei Silva did with Sherdog.com, and when asked to comment on his recent Unanimous Decision victory over  Michael “The Count” Bisping (here is another opening for a vampire joke), “The Axe Murderer” stated:

“This win was probably one of the most tasty of my career. I was eight months out of the Octagon and had to overcome a lot of challenges like the new weight, but I’m happy everything went out fine,” said Silva. “I got very close to winning three bonuses. If they had the almost best submission, almost best knockout – I probably would have won also the almost best fight of the night.”

Ok, so now you finally have the context for ‘what the hell’ we’re talking about. Most tasty huh? That’s an interesting way to look at it; we also equate satisfaction to taste, particularly when that taste stems from greasy or sugary foods. It was a huge win for Wand, no doubt, and if he takes out Yoshihiro Akiyama next he’ll really be rolling at 185.

Yesterday the bomb dropped later in the afternoon that the UFC had in fact signed boxing champion James Toney to a multi-fight contract. Yeah, there’s been lots of talk about it possibly happening but come on, who really thought it would go down? Even the psychic we paid $50 last month said it was all just some publicity stunt…

So with Toney set to swap leather in the Octagon, the internet is quickly filling up with comments from fighters, who are weighing in on the Toney signing. Randy “The Natural” Couture has already ‘tweeted’ that he’d be thrilled to fight Toney first (can you say cha-ching?), but we’re thinking the UFC would probably build up to a fight of that magnitude.

In an interesting report from MMA Junkie this AM, several fighters including Pat Barry, Todd Duffee, Chris  Tuchscherer, Paul Buentello and Brendan Schaub offer their thoughts on the big news, with most of their comments being fairly favourable. Duffer offered this rather blunt and probably accurate assessment:

“I think the UFC’s going to make a lot of money,” he said. “There are people in the UFC he stands to beat. Yeah, it kind of makes a mockery of the sport, but James Toney is a fighter. I definitely respect him.”

As did Schaub:

“Someone would be stupid to trade with him,” he said. “Once he goes to the ground, he’s screwed.”

Yes, one would think that extensive wrestling and jiu-jitsu training is in order for Mr. Toney, but who knows, maybe he’s been working on single legs and D’arce Chokes for years….Nah.

According to reports this afternoon, 41 year-old boxing champion James Toney, has signed a multi-fight agreement with the UFC (no, you didn’t just awake from a coma and it’s April Fool’s Day). Five Ounces of Pain was first to report the news and MMA Fighting is reporting that Dana White has confirmed the signing with the outlet. The UFC President also apparently informed MMA Fighting that he has “no idea” as to when Toney will make his MMA debut.

Due to the fact that Toney has competed at heavyweight over the last couple of years, and is currently listed as the NABO and IBA champ at that weight, one would think that things are going to get even more interesting in the UFC heavyweight division. We’re also thinking that the UFC probably has a healthy line-up of potential opponents forming, particularly dudes with extensive wrestling backgrounds, yelling ‘pick me, pick me.’’

In a follow up report from Sherdog, apparently Toney has been training with Rampage Jackson’s former trainer, Juanito Ibarra, getting a few ‘cage fightin’ pointers. This should be interesting….

After “Rampage” Jackson attended UFC 110 in Australia, it appeared to some that the fighter’s time on “The A-Team” set may have added some padding to Jackson’s waist as well as his wallet. After all, we understand in our own jealous way, one wouldn’t want all that food on a “North Hollywood” set to go to waste (it was filmed in Vancouver).

Now, of course, defenders of the former champ were quick to argue that Jackson will no doubt be in shape for his upcoming May 29^th showdown with rival Rashad “Sugar” Evans. That said, no one should be at all surprised to find out, that Evans is wasting no time in attacking Rampage for his ‘post production’ look. Speaking to Fight Hype, the former TUF coach said:

“He’s in the UK right now training. He’s doing a Forrest camp, so that’s how fat he is. Rampage gotta get in shape just to get in shape. He’s in rough shape right now. He’s been sitting on the set for a while, in the trailer, waiting to do scenes and getting served food and everything else.”

Damn. Getting in shape just to get in shape does sound rough. Using that logic we might have to get in shape just to get in shape, to then finally, really get in shape. That can’t be good.

At any rate, May 29^th is still a ways off, and one would think that due to Jackson’s brimming hatred for Rashad, he’ll be ready come UFC 114.

Yesterday we reported on Dan Hardy’s recent blog, where the British welterweight stated he believes he will have the advantage in his upcoming UFC 111 bout with champion Georges St.Pierre, the longer it goes. Other than voicing that opinion, the outspoken fighter continued to largely steer clear of the ‘oh that’s not very nice’ talk like he’s thrown Josh Koscheck and Mike Swick’s way recently (especially by using “fraggle” to describe “Kos”- that left a mark).

Well, contrary to critics like Koscheck, who have claimed that Hardy doesn’t deserve a shot at the belt, GSP stated in an interview with MMA Junkie Radio that his upcoming opponent “deserves it.” In addition, the champion was rather complimentary towards the Brit, categorizing the fighter as a top ten welterweight, who he believes will be “a great challenge.” Yeah. Not much in the way of drama here.

In regards to the length of the fight, GSP did concede that he hopes to make short work of Hardy, which obviously wouldn’t jive with “The Outlaw’s” game plan…

“The longer a fight is, the more you can get hurt,” St-Pierre recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio “I want to take him out as fast as I can and go home.”

Nothing wrong with that strategy, especially in a sport like MMA, where the turning point of a bout can mean that all of sudden you’re asking a somewhat familiar looking face what just happened. The question is; does GSP feel pressure to finish the fight early, as Hardy believes, because he’s the heavy favorite?

Yesterday we commented on reports that Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem will finally throw down in the good old U.S. of A., against Brett Rogers in a non-title affair, with the question; isn’t it about time that Mr. ‘I won the title in 2007’ actually defend the championship? Well, according to a recent interview with Overeem and Mauro Ranallo on The Fight Show, the answer is yes. As in, Overeem has said that the bout is in fact for the belt.

So, naturally, this may be somewhat perplexing to some, due to the fact that it wasn’t long ago that Mr. Roger’s face was abruptly introduced to the cage floor by an over righthand from Fedor Emelianenko. Mauro tackled this question after talking to Kelly Kahl, CBS Vice President of Programming, the network partner of Strikeforce (thanks to Bloody Elbow for the quote):

“Well I know what you’re asking yourself. Didn’t Brett Rogers lose his last outing against Fedor Emelianenko and now he’s fighting for the title? Well that appears to be the case. And one of the reasons of course is what we alluded to with Kelly Kahl, the status of Fedor Emelianenko with Strikeforce. We know there have been issues going on with Emelianenko’s promoter M-1 Global. The relationship with Strikeforce said to be maybe not as rock solid as it would appear but when reached for comment. The source at Strikeforce said no comment but hopefully something’s will be cleared up in the near future.”

It would appear that reports of a contractual ‘tiff’ between Fedor’s crew and Strikeforce are accurate (sigh).