(Bones’ unorthodox stand-up proved too much for Rashad.)
We’ve all seen street “fights” like the one below when we were younger, where the two combatants spend more time circling and jawing at each other than they do actually settling things the way boys do: by sloppily throwing haymakers until they both gas out.
Apparently in this hood, beef quashing is a community initiative as you can see by the mother screaming encouragement while several adults and kids look on as these two young men nearly get it on. Their stand-up makes Royce Gracie’s look like Badr Hari’s.
(Bones’ unorthodox stand-up proved too much for Rashad.)
We’ve all seen street “fights” like the one below when we were younger, where the two combatants spend more time circling and jawing at each other than they do actually settling things the way boys do: by sloppily throwing haymakers until they both gas out.
Apparently in this hood, beef quashing is a community initiative as you can see by the mother screaming encouragement while several adults and kids look on as these two young men nearly get it on. Their stand-up makes Royce Gracie’s look like Badr Hari’s.
(Video courtesy of YouTube/100kr001)
Seriously. Put your elbows down, boys. No wonder you’re so tired.
The highlight of the brief altercation, besides the mom giving her kid a pep talk in the middle of the fracas, has to be the the other kid telling the crowd that if he didn’t drop his foe with a punch, then they could shoot him. Homie plays for keeps when it comes to street fighting. Where I come from, acting like that would get you put over your mom’s knee in front of everyone. Wait, no. That was an episode of Good Times I saw once.
Demian Maia is a tough fighter to wrap your head around. One day, the onetime middleweight contender is choking out Chael Sonnen and handling a guy like Jorge Santiago the next he’s being dominated by Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman. The one thing the Brazilian jiu-jitsu standout, who is 9-4 in the Octagon has lacked in his career is consistency, which explains why he’s ready perhaps to make a change.
Maia, who admits he sometimes struggles to maintain his 198-pound walking around weight, told Tatame recently that he’s been thinking about dropping down a weight class to fight at 170 pounds.
Demian Maia is a tough fighter to wrap your head around. One day, the onetime middleweight contender is choking out Chael Sonnen and handling a guy like Jorge Santiago the next he’s being dominated by Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman. The one thing the Brazilian jiu-jitsu standout, who is 9-4 in the Octagon has lacked in his career is consistency, which explains why he’s ready perhaps to make a change.
Maia, who admits he sometimes struggles to maintain his 198-pound walking around weight, told Tatame recently that he’s been thinking about dropping down a weight class to fight at 170 pounds.
“It has not been decided yet [for sure]. I’ve always said it was a possibility… I usually have to make much effort to keep 198lbs and I gotta eat a lot not to lose weight because it’s easy for me. I’m getting healed from my hand (hand surgery), which is almost good. I’m taking a week off because it’s been a while since I haven’t taken some time to rest. Now that I’m not training and eating what I want I weight 194lbs, more or less. When it’s close to the fight I cut weight and leave the last 11 to 13lbs to lose at the very end.”
Maia is recovering from hand surgery following a break he sustained his loss to Chris Weidman at last month, but is hoping to be back 10 100 percent by the summer so he can fight on the next planned card in Rio.
“I hope to be ready in June. We’re getting back to training now and I’ll fight in June if I have to,” he explains. “I’ll be ready.”
Who do you think he should face if he debuts at 170?
(“Hey Ryan. My wife saw a poster for your fight in the women’s bathroom at Macy’s. Cool, right”)
Ryan Couture is gearing up for the toughest fight of his career. When he meets Conor Heun in the cage on Saturday night, he’s almost assured a grueling brawl. Speaking this week with the son of UFC Hall-of-Famer Randy Couture, who is blazing his own trail in MMA as one of the sport’s top prospects, the veteran-like confidence and focus he displayed was immediately evident. The grounded 29-year-old says he is not taking anything for granted in this fight, and that he has prepared himself to go the distance with a very formidable opponent.
Check out what the 3-1 well-rounded Strikeforce prospect had to say after the jump.
(“Hey Ryan. My wife saw a poster for your fight in the women’s bathroom at Macy’s. Cool, right”)
Ryan Couture is gearing up for the toughest fight of his career. When he meets Conor Heun in the cage on Saturday night, he’s almost assured a grueling brawl. Speaking this week with the son of UFC Hall-of-Famer Randy Couture, who is blazing his own trail in MMA as one of the sport’s top prospects, the veteran-like confidence and focus he displayed was immediately evident. The grounded 29-year-old says he is not taking anything for granted in this fight, and that he has prepared himself to go the distance with a very formidable opponent.
Here’s what the well-rounded Strikeforce prospect had to say:
On Heun’s emotional investment in the fight:
“I know Conor’s a real intense guy, and he brings that intensity into the cage, so we knew we were in for a fight when we signed this one. Everybody’s different, but I know for me, personally, if I was fighting on that much emotion and aggression, it wouldn’t play out well for me, but it seems to have worked well for him. Obviously, he’s had a lot of success in his career, and it seems that’s the head space he needs to get into to perform his best. It’s working for him, so I wouldn’t criticize it.”
On the underestimation of his submission skills:
“People put a lot of weight on belt level, and the fact that he’s a high ranking guy under Eddie [Bravo], who’s so well respected. I have a lot of respect for that system, as well. Having fought Sean Bollinger — another one of Eddie’s black belts — as an amateur, I know those guys are no joke. I’ve got to be ready for that, but I train hard, and I’m very confident in my ground game. I think we match up well. From what I’ve been hearing, his plan is to try and drag me into a brawl and keep the fight standing, so it’ll be interesting to see how this thing plays out. I know I’m going to be exhausted at the end of that 15 minutes, but I’m planning to come out of it with my hand raised.”
On his fight expectations:
“I would always prefer to finish it quick. It minimizes the chance of me getting injured and having any kind of a layoff. It’s just nice to get in there and get it over with, but my expectation, just knowing how tough and durable and scrappy Conor is, is that we’re going to have to go the distance in this fight, and I’m ready for that, too. It’s almost more satisfying when you go deep into the fight and are able to come out and win the fight that way, even though physically, it’s really demanding, but there’s a certain sense of satisfaction that comes along with that. Given my choice between the two, I’d rather get the quick finish.”
On the respect he has for Heun:
“I’ve got nothing but respect for Conor. I’ve watched him fight for the last couple years, and always been impressed with that mentality and heart that he brings to the cage, and he seems to be a nice guy, although he can be a little out there sometimes. He’s into some different things than I am, but he seems to be a pretty likable guy, and I got no problem grabbing a beer with him after we finish beating each other up.”
On Strikeforce’s promotion of undercards:
“I think it would have maybe been wise to spend a little more time and effort on promoting some of the undercard fights, just because it’s such a stacked card. I think this card is just being known as this big women’s fight, but there are a lot of really good match-ups on the undercard. I think they could’ve gotten some mileage out of pushing the Thomson and Noons fight. That’s going to be a great fight. Even on the prelims, Pat Healy and Caros Fodor, and my fight, as well, are all compelling match ups that would draw some interest. I definitely wouldn’t criticize the way it’s been marketed. I think they did a really good job promoting that particular fight, but I think they had a lot more interesting match ups on the card that they could’ve used as well, to draw even more eyes to it. Sean Shelby did such a great job putting together this card, that it’s kind of a bummer to not see the whole card, top to bottom, get as much attention as that one fight.”
Ryan Couture vs. Conor Heun goes down this Saturday, March 3, in Ohio, and will be broadcast on Showtime Extreme. The match-up has all the markings of Fight of the Night, and should set the pace leading into the rest of the stacked card. Hopefully it meets expectations and brings the undercards more buzz in the not-to-distant future like they deserve.
With the recent run of awesome mixed martial arts documentaries we’ve been treated to the past few years like Renzo Gracie: Legacy, The Reem, Driven, Once I was a Champion and Like Water, there’s a pretty good chance that we’re in for a drought, especially if you consider that there was a six-plus-year span between the current block of flicks and The Smashing Machine.
The film, which is set for limited theatrical release and for On Demand viewing by select cable and satellite providers April 20, follows the lives of a number of Louisiana-based fighters, most notably fast-rising UFC featherweight Dustin Poirier and his coach and mentor, TUF 7 and UFC vet Tim Credeur.
Check out the trailer after the jump.
(Poirier before his UFC debut)
With the recent run of awesome mixed martial arts documentaries we’ve been treated to the past few years like Renzo Gracie: Legacy, The Reem, Driven, Once I was a Champion and Like Water, there’s a pretty good chance that we’re in for a drought, especially if you consider that there was a six-plus-year span between the current block of flicks and The Smashing Machine.
The film, which is set for limited theatrical release and for On Demand viewing by select cable and satellite providers April 20, follows the lives of a number of Louisiana-based fighters, most notably fast-rising UFC featherweight Dustin Poirier and his coach and mentor, TUF 7 and UFC vet Tim Credeur.
Directed and produced by the powerhouse documentary filmmaking team of Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker (How to Fold a Flag, Bulletproof Salesman, The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair and Gunner Palace), the film paints a colorful portrait of the very different lives and struggles both in and out of the cage that its protagonists go through to live their dreams of making it to the Octagon or of simply overcoming their personal demons and fears to step in the cage in front of 500 people.
As you can see by the latest trailer for the raw, gripping and emotional 85-minute opus above, it’s a must see movie for fight fans and otherwise as it’s less about MMA and more about the human condition.
It’s no secret that we’re big supporters of quality, well-made film projects, and Fightville definitely is a movie that fits the bill. We’ve been looking forward to since reading the reviews and are hoping that the current trend of MMA docs that don’t suck doesn’t end anytime with this movie.
Do yourself a favor and check it out on April 20. It might be a while before another feature of this magnitude comes around, unless of course you think Bob Sapp’s How to Throw a Fight like It’s Your Job sounds promising.
As we wind down this frenetic week of anticipation for arguably the biggest fight in WMMA history, Ronda Rousey is taking a load off and catching some much needed rest. Despite being run down from days that start at 5 a.m. and end well past the hours of normalcy, she is still generous with her time, and graciously granted CagePotato.com another interview, among a seemingly unending stream of Q&A requests ahead of her first MMA title bout Saturday night. The focal point is always the same from one interview to the next: Miesha Tate.
In this latest visit with the former Olympian, “Rowdy” discusses several more topics, including Tate’s striking, and the misconceptions some may have about her ability to go into the later rounds if need be.
As we wind down this frenetic week of anticipation for arguably the biggest fight in WMMA history, Ronda Rousey is taking a load off and catching some much needed rest. Despite being run down from days that start at 5 a.m. and end well past the hours of normalcy, she is still generous with her time, and graciously granted CagePotato.com another interview, among a seemingly unending stream of Q&A requests ahead of her first MMA title bout Saturday night. The focal point is always the same from one interview to the next: Miesha Tate.
In this latest visit with the former Olympian, “Rowdy” discusses several more topics, including Tate’s striking, and the misconceptions some may have about her ability to go into the later rounds if need be.
Deep Water
“I think it’s just dumb that she assumes that my conditioning wouldn’t be very good. I’m an Olympic athlete, and before that I was a swimmer. I’ve been an athlete since I was six years old. To assume that I would gas out is dumb, and to assume that I have horrible striking is dumb. I think the only way that she can convince herself that she has a chance is to tell herself that everything that she hasn’t seen isn’t there. I think she’s so scared of that first exchange, because I’ve gotten everybody, so far, in that first exchange. I think she’s telling herself that once she gets past that first minute, that she’s safe, but that’s totally not the case.”
(Video courtesy of YouTube/ShoSports)
Tate’s Striking
“Her striking is not the least bit impressive, at all. Just look at their attempt to show any of her highlights. One highlight shows her hitting Marloes Coenen once, and then she loses her and falls against the cage. There’s another one where she tries to kick this one chick, and the other chick throws her. She doesn’t really have any striking to speak of. From what I’ve seen, it’s not impressive. It’s much less impressive than my absent striking that people haven’t seen.”
Strikeforce Marketing of This Fight
“I think it’s been great. I’m really happy with the job that Strikeforce and ZUFFA and Showtime have done. They’ve all done a fabulous job, and I hear that the ads are playing all the time. I think there are so many people that are excited to see this fight. I feel really lucky that they put out this amount of effort for one of my fights.”
Fighting On Emotion
“She’s never had to deal with any up front confrontation like this before. She’s never had to deal with the attention in a fight like this before. She’s never been the main event before, whereas I’ve been at the highest level of sports. I was in the Olympics twice, and I prepared my whole life for that. There’s no way to replicate that amount of pressure. This is a fight that entered my mind a few months ago. We trained and we talked and now we’re going to fight. It’s not like something I was aspiring toward since I was a little girl, and now it’s coming down to one day. It pales in comparison. I’m definitely going to deal with the pressure and the attention much more easily than she is.”
Pressure (or lack thereof) of being a 4 to 1 Favorite
“It’s more pressure to her, because now she knows that pretty much everyone thinks she’s going to lose. Psychologically, that’s got to impact you. She’s already come out and said ‘Oh, if I lose I’m thinking about changing my weight class’ or ‘I think taking the modest approach, it’s easier to lose.’ I don’t even entertain the possibility that I could lose, and she’s already setting herself up to fall.”
Even amid the onset of a much needed nap, the confidence Rousey exudes is almost palpable. She is as cool as a cucumber in this final stretch of the countdown to Saturday, and definitely has her eyes on the prize. When asked, in closing, if she was prepared to be the new face of women’s MMA, should she win. Without missing a beat, and absent of any hesitation, she replied, “I’m prepared for anything. I’m Ronda Freakin’ Rousey.”
