Author: ReX13

We Still Love You, Wanderlei

VidProps: KahL1One

 

Once upon a time, you were terrified of Wanderlei Silva.    He did scary things to people.  He did it a lot.  You kind of wondered if he was legitimately crazy.  He intimidated opponents during his walk to the ring while the un-toughest techno you’ve ever heard played in the background — to the point that “Sandstorm” is now universally recognized as Badass. We didn’t even know that Badass had a transitive property, so we thank Wanderlei for teaching us that, as well.

The Axe Murderer returns to action this weekend, perhaps on the downside of his career. The Octagon has never been kind to Wandy — he’s got a 3-5 career record for the UFC– and he’s not getting any younger. If MMA does have a nine-year rule, then this 15+ year veteran should be ready to hang it up.

But he’s not.

VidProps: KahL1One

 

Once upon a time, you were terrified of Wanderlei Silva.    He did scary things to people.  He did it a lot.  You kind of wondered if he was legitimately crazy.  He intimidated opponents during his walk to the ring while the un-toughest techno you’ve ever heard played in the background — to the point that “Sandstorm” is now universally recognized as Badass. We didn’t even know that Badass had a transitive property, so we thank Wanderlei for teaching us that, as well.

The Axe Murderer returns to action this weekend, perhaps on the downside of his career. The Octagon has never been kind to Wandy — he’s got a 3-5 career record for the UFC– and he’s not getting any younger. If MMA does have a nine-year rule, then this 15+ year veteran should be ready to hang it up.

But he’s not. After sixteen months away from fighting to mend a boo boo and have an ouchie taken care of, Wanderlei Silva is ready to fight.   He’s surgically repaired, rested, and, to hear him tell it, has a compulsion to get in the cage and fight somebody so powerful it borders on a physical need.  ”I’ve been out. I had a hard year for me,” he told MMAFighting.   “I’m a competitive guy. I like to be in the octagon and fight my whole life. I had a really tough year.”   Never one to back down from a brawl, Wandy asked for, and got, a bout with Christian Cyrus Leben.

Now, you can’t throw a mini-recorder through a local MMA show in Parkville, Missouri without it recording some talk about “going to war” and “expect fireworks”, and yeah, sometimes we get a little jaded about it. Can we at least agree that it’s safe to believe it coming from these two? I, for one, am willing to believe that Silva just wants to go out there and throw hands. Unless the Athletic Commission is cool with stomps and soccer kicks; he’d totally be down for that, too.

Anyways, as your Lead Writer at the CagePotato Fanboyism Desk, i present this video of the nicest, sweetest explosively-violent man you could ever hope to meet.  Enjoy.

[RX]

Ailton Barbosa Wins 60-Man Kumite, Kills Bull to Join Bellator

Effective Fight Picture Tip #28: A little blood goes a long way.

 

Remember a few weeks ago when we told you that Bellator was holding open tryouts in Florida, and pro fighters could go possibly snag a slot on a Bellator card? No? Well, we did. We left it right here on the front page for you, and we don’t want to hear any more about it.

As Bellator’s own website points out, many of their tournament fighters have been guys from tough local scenes that put together a couple of wins and got promoted to the brackets: Kenny Foster, Tyler Stinson, Anthony Lapsley, and Jose Vega among them.

Well, the open tryouts went down June 18th, just like we told you, and MMAJunkie reports that there was one winner out of a field of sixty. While we cannot confirm that Florida ATT prospect Ailton Barbosa fought and defeated 59 men in open combat, we kind of want to believe it. Barbosa is a grappling ace, judging by all of his Facebook pictures of him in his pajamas, so we assume that he subbed most of them, probably with sweet flying guillotines and cool stuff like that.

We’re also told that he went on to kill a raging bull barehanded with a single strike, then flew away under his own power. That’s right, people: Ailton Barbosa has the deadly knowledge of Dim Mak. And he can fly.

Our condolences to the family of whoever he fights at Bellator 50 in September.

[RX]

Effective Fight Picture Tip #28:  A little blood goes a long way.

 

Remember a few weeks ago when we told you that Bellator was holding open tryouts in Florida, and pro fighters could go possibly snag a slot on a Bellator card?  No?  Well, we did.  We left it right here on the front page for you, and we don’t want to hear any more about it.

As Bellator’s own website points out, many of their tournament fighters have been guys from tough local scenes that put together a couple of wins and got promoted to the brackets: Kenny Foster, Tyler Stinson, Anthony Lapsley, and Jose Vega among them.

Well, the open tryouts went down June 18th, just like we told you, and MMAJunkie reports that there was one winner out of a field of sixty. While we cannot confirm that Florida ATT prospect Ailton Barbosa fought and defeated 59 men in open combat, we kind of want to believe it. Barbosa is a grappling ace, judging by all of his Facebook pictures of him in his pajamas, so we assume that he subbed most of them, probably with sweet flying guillotines and cool stuff like that.

We’re also told that he went on to kill a raging bull barehanded with a single strike, then flew away under his own power.  That’s right, people: Ailton Barbosa has the deadly knowledge of Dim Mak.  And he can fly.

Our condolences to the family of whoever he fights at Bellator 50 in September.

[RX]

Keyboard Warriors #3: The Ream

If you missed Keyboard Warriors Monday, hey thanks. Nice to know someone actually appreciates all I do to entertain you jerkfaces. For the rest of you: hey guess what i did?

Yup, prepare yourselves for KBW #3! In the aftermath of the weekend’s Strikeforce action, Dana takes the time to address the heavyweights, evaluate their performances, and fill them in on his short terms plans. And his long term plans. Say what you will, but Big Daddy White dreams big, son.

If you are interested in 100% made up conversations between characters that are mostly fabrications, come on in and enjoy. Feel free to comment your little hands off. If you don’t like comedy … well, i’ve got nothing for you.

Why do you keep coming here again?

[RX]

If you missed Keyboard Warriors Monday, hey thanks. Nice to know someone actually appreciates all I do to entertain you jerkfaces. For the rest of you: hey guess what i did?

Yup, prepare yourselves for KBW #3! In the aftermath of the weekend’s Strikeforce action, Dana takes the time to address the heavyweights, evaluate their performances, and fill them in on his short terms plans. And his long term plans. Say what you will, but Big Daddy White dreams big, son.

If you are interested in 100% made up conversations between characters that are mostly fabrications, come on in and enjoy. Feel free to comment your little hands off. If you don’t like comedy … well, i’ve got nothing for you.

Why do you keep coming here again?

As always, thanks to Christopher and those jokers at WithLeather.

[RX]

 

Miami Hustle: That Man From Cuba

Genghis Con continues his campaign to make you like Mondays, as the second episode of his web-doc Miami Hustle dropped right on schedule. This episode follows decorated Cuban wrestler Alexis Vila as he prepares for his ninth pro MMA fight at flyweight. The episode starts with the final stages of sweating just before weigh-ins, and ends with his fight with OKC-based Lewis McKenzie at MFA New Generation 4 in February. Vila is an impressive talent, and don’t be surprised if you hear his name pop up when people start talking about the UFC’s plans at 125 pounds.

As with pretty much everything Genghis Con does, this is completely worth the time to sit down and watch. The two-man film crew managed to catch some funny stuff, not the least of which is Vila’s girlfriend stunningly bad timing to start with “I need to lose some weight…” Considering that she’s talking to a wrestler — an Olympic wrestler at that — and a pro fighter who’d just weighed in hours before, she’s not going to get much sympathy about how hard it is to shed ten pounds.

Also keep an eye out for Bellator’s Zombifier-in-Chief Hector Lombard, as he comes to watch Vila fight and gift Jorge Masvidal with a big knife, and JZ Cavalcante and Jorge Santiago ditching training to go surfing. Slackers.

You can catch Miami Hustle Monday nights here at 8pm ET, but seeing as how you can barely remember where you left your phone and what pants you’re wearing, we’ll go ahead and remind you next week.

[RX]

Genghis Con continues his campaign to make you like Mondays, as the second episode of his web-doc Miami Hustle dropped right on schedule. This episode follows decorated Cuban wrestler Alexis Vila as he prepares for his ninth pro MMA fight at flyweight. The episode starts with the final stages of sweating just before weigh-ins, and ends with his fight with OKC-based Lewis McKenzie at MFA New Generation 4 in February. Vila is an impressive talent, and don’t be surprised if you hear his name pop up when people start talking about the UFC’s plans at 125 pounds.

As with pretty much everything Genghis Con does, this is completely worth the time to sit down and watch. The two camera men managed to catch some funny stuff, not the least of which is Vila’s girlfriend stunningly bad timing to start with the ol’ “I need to lose some weight” attention gambit. Considering that she’s talking to a wrestler — an Olympic wrestler at that — and a pro fighter who’d just weighed in hours before, she’s not going to get much sympathy about how hard it is to shed ten pounds.

Also keep an eye out for Bellator’s Zombifier-in-Chief Hector Lombard, as he comes to watch Vila fight and gift Jorge Masvidal with a big knife, and JZ Cavalcante and Jorge Santiago ditching training to go surfing. Slackers.

You can catch Miami Hustle Monday nights here at 8pm ET, but seeing as how you can barely remember where you left your phone and what pants you’re wearing, we’ll go ahead and remind you next week.

[RX]

Programming Alert: Mulhern-High Will Be Televised

If you’re curious, this is how we look without a shirt. Just take our word for it. PicProps: FiveKnuckles

We had a bit of a “WTF?” moment as we perused the card for this weekend’s Strikeforce Challengers card, and not because we fell for “Fedor is on the card!!” again. No, we were a little confused to see that an intriguing welterweight matchup between world-tourist Jason High and KOTC-standout Quinn Mulhern was relegated to the preliminaries of a Challengers card, which is sort of like Cam Newton and A.J. Green playing catch in the parking lot outside a Kansas City Command game. (To our international readers: sorry, we hope you followed that.)

Well, someone obviously heard that we were confused. After middleweights Antwain Britt and Danillo Villefort both suffered injuries, their fight was scratched and High-Mulhern was promoted to the main card. We didn’t realize we had that much pull, but it’s good to know for future reference.

If you’re curious, this is how we look without a shirt.  Just take our word for it.  PicProps:  FiveKnuckles

We had a bit of a “WTF?” moment as we perused the card for this weekend’s Strikeforce Challengers card, and not because we fell for “Fedor is on the card!!” again.  No, we were a little confused to see that an intriguing welterweight matchup between world-tourist Jason High and KOTC-standout Quinn Mulhern was relegated to the preliminaries of a Challengers card, which is sort of like Cam Newton and A.J. Green playing catch in the parking lot outside a Kansas City Command game.  (To our international readers:  sorry, we hope you followed that.)

Well, someone obviously heard that we were confused. After middleweights Antwain Britt and Danillo Villefort both suffered injuries, their fight was scratched and High-Mulhern was promoted to the main card. We didn’t realize we had that much pull, but it’s good to know for future reference.

High has a four-fight streak going since his UFC debut last year, where he dropped a decision to Charlie Brenneman (and was subsequently dropped himself).  The KC Bandit’s latest was a quick win over local favorite Rudy Bears via choke at Titan FC in January:

Quinn Mulhern has been paying his dues as a King of the Cage welterweight, where he’s piled up fifteen wins (ten via sub) to claim the 170 pound title, and unify that strap with the KOTC Canadian welterweight crown. He dropped a TKO loss to Michael Guymon in October of 2009, then bounced back with a TKO win over Rich Clementi. Since then, Mulhern has been taking care of business, RNC-ing fools on the reg, like so:

Who ya got, Nation?

[RX]

While You Weren’t Watching: Heun – Almeida Was Entertaining


Damn, Heun’s getting all misty-eyed. VidProps: Strikeforce

Conor Heun and Magno Almeida were on the HDNet undercard card, and they turned in a three round scrap highlighted by some aggressive (and effective) ground work. Both fighters attempted subs early and often, including an omoplata attempt and a toe hold in the first round. Sure, a guillotine is nice, but we’ll take the exotic submissions every time.

Almeida lost a unanimous decision, but he at least left Heun with something to think about, as one of Almeida’s twenty seven arm bar attempts (disclaimer: no, we didn’t count them) left Heun with a serious lack of functionality in his right arm for the next month or so.

Heun got back into the win column after two losses in a row (to KJ Noons and Jorge Gurgel), so he’s understandably stoked about the win. On the other hand, his arm is seriously effed up, so there’s all kinds of emotions and hormones and stuff going on in Huen’s brain; give him a pass if he seems a little emotional in that video.

Yes, “all kinds of emotions and hormones and stuff” is technical language.


Damn, Heun’s getting all misty-eyed. VidProps: Strikeforce

Conor Heun and Magno Almeida were on the HDNet undercard card, and they turned in a three round scrap highlighted by some aggressive (and effective) ground work. Both fighters attempted subs early and often, including an omoplata attempt and a toe hold in the first round. Sure, a guillotine is nice, but we’ll take the exotic submissions every time.

Almeida lost a unanimous decision, but he at least left Heun with something to think about, as one of Almeida’s twenty seven arm bar attempts (disclaimer: no, we didn’t count them) left Heun with a serious lack of functionality in his right arm for the next month or so.

Heun got back into the win column after two losses in a row (to KJ Noons and Jorge Gurgel), so he’s understandably stoked about the win. On the other hand, his arm is seriously effed up, so there’s all kinds of emotions and hormones and stuff going on in Huen’s brain; give him a pass if he seems a little emotional in that video.

Yes, “all kinds of emotions and hormones and stuff” is technical language.


Paging Dr Rogan for a consult, paging Dr Joe Rogan.”  PicProps: Ms Tracy Lee/CageWriter


Referee Leon Roberts falls prey to Heun’s Aikido badassery. GIFProps: IronForgesIron


Roberts gets his revenge by raising that right arm higher than was strictly necessary.  GIFProps: IronForgesIron
[RX]