Quick head’s up, Nation. While Nate Marquardt has been mum since a series of unfortunate events over the weekend about what exactly is going on, it’s been announced that he would be addressing his issues today. Well, surprise, surprise: the Barbara Walters of MMA (and we mean that in the most complimentary way possible) landed the interview, with Marquardt scheduled to appear on The MMA Hour today at 1pm.
What are you trying to tell us, Nate?
Quick head’s up, Nation. While Nate Marquardt has been mum since a series of unfortunate events over the weekend about what exactly is going on, it’s been announced that he would be addressing his issues today. Well, surprise, surprise: the Barbara Walters of MMA (and we mean that in the most complimentary way possible) landed the interview, with Marquardt scheduled to appear on The MMA Hour today at 1pm.
What We Know (not much):
* Marquardt completed his paperwork and was licensed to fight, but was unable to clear up a medical issue with the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission.
* Whatever it is, the Baldfather is pissed. Nate was summarily fired for … whatever it is.
Anything beyond that is just rumor and speculation, although there are a ton of “insiders” willing to share the “scoop”. We would link to some of this speculation, but there aren’t enough words in this post to link to all of them, and they’re all pretty worthless at this point.
We’ll all get the story straight from the man himself here in about an hour, so everyone just be cool. Tune in here at 1, and you’ll know as much about this as we do. Unless you happen to be Nate Marquardt, in which case, dude, call us.
Quick head’s up, Nation. While Nate Marquardt has been mum since a series of unfortunate events over the weekend about what exactly is going on, it’s been announced that he would be addressing his issues today. Well, surprise, surprise: the Barbara Walters of MMA (and we mean that in the most complimentary way possible) landed the interview, with Marquardt scheduled to appear on The MMA Hour today at 1pm.
What are you trying to tell us, Nate?
Quick head’s up, Nation. While Nate Marquardt has been mum since a series of unfortunate events over the weekend about what exactly is going on, it’s been announced that he would be addressing his issues today. Well, surprise, surprise: the Barbara Walters of MMA (and we mean that in the most complimentary way possible) landed the interview, with Marquardt scheduled to appear on The MMA Hour today at 1pm.
What We Know (not much):
* Marquardt completed his paperwork and was licensed to fight, but was unable to clear up a medical issue with the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission.
* Whatever it is, the Baldfather is pissed. Nate was summarily fired for … whatever it is.
Anything beyond that is just rumor and speculation, although there are a ton of “insiders” willing to share the “scoop”. We would link to some of this speculation, but there aren’t enough words in this post to link to all of them, and they’re all pretty worthless at this point.
We’ll all get the story straight from the man himself here in about an hour, so everyone just be cool. Tune in here at 1, and you’ll know as much about this as we do. Unless you happen to be Nate Marquardt, in which case, dude, call us.
Seems like you should be able to predict the fight based on the shorts alone. PicProps: MMAJunkie
It happens everytime. You write off a UFC card as uninteresting and decide to paint along with Bob Ross (or whatever it is you do with your personal time), and the fighters get wind of it and take your lack of interest personally.
They get in to the Octagon and perform stupifying acts of athleticism and heartitude, Dana White gets a huge boner at the press conference, and now you have to read recaps and watch GIFs to catch up on the action. Sucks to be you, we guess.
Frankly, you need to be making better choices in your life — you cannot paint those happy little clouds and friendly little mountains like Bob Ross — no one can. Frodog himself couldn’t even paint like that; all of Bob Ross’s shows were actually produced by Industrial Light and Magic. There, the secret is out, and we can die in peace.
For those dedicated souls that tuned in, hey wow, how about that show, huh? Like you, we had some thoughts during the fights, and unlike you, we wrote some of these thoughts down during and after the fights. Come on in and let us tell you how you’re feeling right now.
Seems like you should be able to predict the fight based on the shorts alone. PicProps: MMAJunkie
It happens everytime. You write off a UFC card as uninteresting and decide to paint along with Bob Ross (or whatever it is you do with your personal time), and the fighters get wind of it and take your lack of interest personally.
They get in to the Octagon and perform stupifying acts of athleticism and heartitude, Dana White gets a huge boner at the press conference, and now you have to read recaps and watch GIFs to catch up on the action. Sucks to be you, we guess.
Frankly, you need to be making better choices in your life — you cannot paint those happy little clouds and friendly little mountains like Bob Ross — no one can. Frodog himself couldn’t even paint like that; all of Bob Ross’s shows were actually produced by Industrial Light and Magic. There, the secret is out, and we can die in peace.
For those dedicated souls that tuned in, hey wow, how about that show, huh? Like you, we had some thoughts during the fights, and unlike you, we wrote some of these thoughts down during and after the fights. Come on in and let us tell you how you’re feeling right now.
Charles Oliveira and Nik Lentz were putting on a damn show in the prelims, until Oliveira blasted Lentz in the eyepiece with an illegal knee. When referee Chip Snider missed the blow completely and kept the fight going, Lentz was submitted like he had no clue what was going on. (Because he didn’t.) Oliveira gets the win, and our blood pressure started going up … until we’re informed that reps from the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission were on the case, and the fight and the result would be examined. Props, kudos, and respect to the AC for being on the ball to: A) catch the foul, and B) move swiftly to assure everyone that they caught the foul.
It was quickly apparent in the Mitrione-Morecraft fight that Meathead hits quite a bit harder than Christian Morecraft appreciates being hit, and we were surprised to see it make it out of the first. It was the accumulation of damage, rather than one crushing killshot, that sent Morecraft to the floor, but Mitrione knew his work was done. Morecraft shying away from the referee like he’d just been tag-teamed by a honey badger and a silverback gorilla hopped up on Cialis only served to reinforce that he was done for the night. Mitrione was already off shaking hands with Joe Silva and thinking of a joke for his Rogan interview. Walk-off knockouts: yep, still awesome.
3. Maybe it’s NOT such a good idea to take fights back to back ….
Saturday, Rick Story was riding an impressive win streak (poised to join the 7 Win Club), coming off a great victory, shooting up the welterweight rankings, and was a chic pick to spoil Nate Marquardt’s debut at 170. Sunday night, he’s getting outwrestled by some guy from the prelims. While the late change in opponents could have been a factor, Story looked to be having some fatigue issues as the fight went on. Whether he was over-trained or under-gameplanned, Story probably wishes he’d taken a couple months off. On a related note…
4. It’s time to take a good look at Charlie Brenneman.
And we don’t mean his skinny-puppy physique or those awesomely bad highlighter vale tudo shorts. Charlie Brenneman is now 14-2 professionally, with losses to John Howard (three years ago) and Johny Hendricks — no shame there. In the UFC, he’s sent two other fighters home with a pink slip, including his debut victory over Jason High. On one hand, it seems surreal to even mention Brenneman against guys like GSP, Fitch, or Koscheck; on the other, he deserves more than just returning to the prelims versus TJ Grant. There’s plenty of fights for him: Brian Foster (if his brain is ok) or Matt Brown would be appropriate tests for him, but if he wants to make a splash he’ll go after Thiago Alves. We can’t see him winning that fight, but then again, dude, did you see what he did to Rick Story?
Cheick Kongo and Pat Barry brought the artillery for their fight, and they manages to use all of it in just about two and a half minutes. HD had Kongo reeling all over the Octagon between two knockdowns, and everyone expected ref Dan Mirgliotta to jump in and save Kongo — including Mirgliotta himself. Kongo managed to regain his footing, shaky as it was, and land a right hook and a follow-on uppercut that put Barry directly in touch with his belated great-nana . It was a scary KO and we were glad to see our boy HD was ok, but holy Scott Smith Batman! Between his “hay ladies” physique and his concussive knockouts, Kongo reminded all of us why he’s still in the UFC last night.
Well holy shit. Word came out today that Nate Marquardt was having a bad day: he’d failed his medical clearances for his main event fight against Rick Story at tomorrow night’s UFC For Free (or whatever they’re calling it now). There weren’t a lot of details, but his management said it “only temporary” and that “Nate’s future is at welterweight.”
Marquardt’s day turned significantly worse just an hour later, when Dana Tweeted a terse video confirming that Marquardt was donezo:
“I’m sure you heard that Nate Marquardt is out. It’s true. He failed his medicals. Not only is he out of this fight, and out of the main event on Versus, he will no longer be with the UFC.”
WOW. We’re not ones to speculate, but it’s pretty obvious that BigDaddyWhite is pissed, like he’s holding the fighter responsible for some misdeed.
Oh and by the way, Marquardt will be replaced by Charlie Brenneman, who had originally been slated to fight TJ Grant. Grant pulled out of the bout three days ago due to illness, leaving Brenneman without a dance partner.
Feel free to let your imaginations run wild in the comments, and we’ll update you as soon as we hear something from Marquardt.
[RX]
We blame ourselves.
Well holy shit. Word came out today that Nate Marquardt was having a bad day: he’d failed his medical clearances for his main event fight against Rick Story at tomorrow night’s UFC For Free (or whatever they’re calling it now). There weren’t a lot of details, but his management said it “only temporary” and that “Nate’s future is at welterweight.”
Marquardt’s day turned significantly worse just an hour later, when Dana Tweeted a terse video confirming that Marquardt was donezo:
“I’m sure you heard that Nate Marquardt is out. It’s true. He failed his medicals. Not only is he out of this fight, and out of the main event on Versus, he will no longer be with the UFC.”
WOW. We’re not ones to speculate, but it’s pretty obvious that BigDaddyWhite is pissed, like he’s holding the fighter responsible for some misdeed.
Oh and by the way, Marquardt will be replaced by Charlie Brenneman, who had originally been slated to fight TJ Grant. Grant pulled out of the bout three days ago due to illness, leaving Brenneman without a dance partner.
Feel free to let your imaginations run wild in the comments, and we’ll update you as soon as we hear something from Marquardt.
By now ya’ll know that Hioki has some prime wins under his belt (something you can’t always say about fighters competing on the other side of the Pacific), including Mark Hominick (twice) and an upset over Marlon Sandro for the Sengoku featherweight strap. Hioki hit a rough stretch in 2007, dropping consecutive decisions under the Shooto banner, but he hasn’t really lost since if you don’t count the decision loss to Michihiro Omigawa that the judges hung on him–and we don’t.
By now ya’ll know that Hioki has some prime wins under his belt (something you can’t always say about fighters competing on the other side of the Pacific), including Mark Hominick (twice) and an upset over Marlon Sandro for the Sengoku featherweight strap. Hioki hit a rough stretch in 2007, dropping consecutive decisions under the Shooto banner, but he hasn’t really lost since if you don’t count the decision loss to Michihiro Omigawa that the judges hung on him–and we don’t.
Some people are just more committed than others. Some athletes train on a schedule that would appear insane to ordinary humans. Some athletes force themselves out of bed each morning when it’s still black outside and drink a few eggs and go run a half marathon. That’s pretty dedicated. Then there’s Neil Melanson.
Melanson is a grappling coach at Xtreme Couture in Vegas; you may remember him as the guy who gave Randy Couture some sort of black belt after submitting James Toney. Melanson is not strictly a jiu jitsu guy with a clear pedigree, instead blending elements from multiple disciplines including catch wrestling and jiu jitsu. Do not misunderstand us, though: Melanson will twist and contort your body until you cry like a little girl.
Turns out that Melanson has had a bum toe for a few years, and now he doesn’t.
Neil and his jacked-up toe, in happier times.
Some people are just more committed than others. Some athletes train on a schedule that would appear insane to ordinary humans. Some athletes force themselves out of bed each morning when it’s still black outside and drink a few eggs and go run a half marathon. That’s pretty dedicated. Then there’s Neil Melanson.
Melanson is a grappling coach at Xtreme Couture in Vegas; you may remember him as the guy who gave Randy Couture some sort of black belt after submitting James Toney. Melanson is not strictly a jiu jitsu guy with a clear pedigree, instead blending elements from multiple disciplines including catch wrestling and jiu jitsu. Do not misunderstand us, though: Melanson will twist and contort your body until you cry like a little girl.
Turns out that Melanson has had a bum toe for a few years, and now he doesn’t. The second toe on his left foot has repeatedly broken while rolling around on the mats, and, according to him, it “snapped” a couple of years ago. Melanson, being a big tough guy, roughly straightened it, wrapped it, and went about his business. The toe continued to bother him, as it wandered farther and farther from the alignment that most of us expect our little piggies to have, and finally it began to bother Melanson enough that he was willing to let a medical doctor person take a look at it.
The doc’s medical opinion went something like this: “The toe is all cattywampus, arthritic, and it’s going to be tough to fix. We’ll break it, glue it, and screw it and hopefully you’ll be back on the mats in a year.”
Melanson’s response went something like this: “Cut me, Mick.”
Yup, Neil Melanson had his toe amputated, because he doesn’t want to take a year off waiting for some slacker toe to heal, when the damn thing never seemed to have the heart for the long haul in the first place.
Melanson is recovering from the loss of his toe now, and reportedly in good spirits. And when we say “loss of his toe”, we refer to the fact that Neil and the boys wanted to keep it, but the doctors wouldn’t let him. Pansy liberal doctors probably didn’t want to cut the damn thing off in the first place.
We leave you with the following photographic evidence of Melanson’s mutilation, and a quote: “It’s really not a big deal to me. It’s just a toe. I guess when you love the sport and you’re committed to it, you don’t let little things like toes get in the way.”
What are you trying to tell us, Nate?
