Author: ReX13

Strikeforce Isn’t Rushing to Name New Champions (And That’s Totally Fine)

Great belt, or the greatest belt? PicProps: AnnieSHOSports/Twitter

After another fun night of heavyweight action, the Strikeforce Grand Prix finals are set: Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier will fight to be recognized as the best heavyweight in the world, except for those guys in the UFC. Or the guys that have left Strikeforce in the past few months. Whatever.

Anywho, you may have seen pictures of the GP championship belt that showed up last week, and heard that Coker and company are still lukewarm about the idea of calling the GP winner the Strikeforce champion. We thought that didn’t really make sense, and Josh Barnett agrees. At the Strikeforce press conference Saturday night, Barnett tried to twist Coker’s arm a bit, asking: “Why don’t we sweeten the pot?” Barnett asked. “Why don’t we put that title on the line between me and Cormier?”

Coker, bless his heart, didn’t want to commit to that, and you have to wonder: “Why?”

Great belt, or the greatest belt? PicProps:  AnnieSHOSports/Twitter

After another fun night of heavyweight action, the Strikeforce Grand Prix finals are set: Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier will fight to be recognized as the best heavyweight in the world, except for those guys in the UFC. Or the guys that have left Strikeforce in the past few months. Whatever.

Anywho, you may have seen pictures of the GP championship belt that showed up last week, and heard that Coker and company are still lukewarm about the idea of calling the GP winner the Strikeforce champion. We thought that didn’t really make sense, and Josh Barnett agrees. At the Strikeforce press conference Saturday night, Barnett tried to twist Coker’s arm a bit, asking: “Why don’t we sweeten the pot?” Barnett asked. “Why don’t we put that title on the line between me and Cormier?”

Coker, bless his heart, didn’t want to commit to that, and you have to wonder: “Why?”

It seems that we here at CagePotato were more right than we knew when we said that championship belts just may not be a good idea in Strikeforce. Anyone who can claim a title in Strikeforce is obviously headed to competition in the big show, so why bother naming a champ if you don’t have a champion’s clause to keep him? Strikeforce would constantly be having tournaments and bouts to fill vacant championships, and you can imagine how much esteem the title would hold if a fighter claims the Strikeforce title, gets called up to the UFC, drops two straight, and then gets sent right back to Strikeforce. Is that fighter an automatic contender for the Strikeforce strap?

So upon reflection, it seems Coker has the right idea: trophies and belts are great for designating a big win like sweeping through a tournament field. Fighters should get some kind of tangible reward (aside from cash) for their wins. But with it now crystal-clear that Strikeforce will hand over its best and brightest to the UFC roster, there’s no need to anoint one person as the best in Strikeforce. That’s just the on-deck circle for the big leagues now.

You know, business as usual.

[RX]

Shocking News Week Continues: Paul Daley Misses Weight at BAMMA 7

“Missed it by this much.”

Put on your surprised face, kids: Paul Daley stepped on the scales just minutes ago for his welterweight contest this weekend at BAMMA 7, and was recorded six pounds over the 170 pound limit. He has been given two hours to sweat out the remaining pounds. His opponent, Jordan Radev, came in at 170 on the first try.

At this point, Paul Daley making weight the first try would be more of a story, as this now makes the sixth time (by our count) that Semtex has tipped the scales in his own favor.

Apparently, the issue this time is a problem with sauna availability. If that excuse sounds familiar, look at you paying attention — we could just pinch your cheeks. Clearly, the UK is years behind the rest of the world in steam room technology, although you’d think they could fly in a specialized consultant from Finland or something.

CagePotato has been unable to confirm that Anthony Johnson just sent a text message to Daley, telling him to “stop eating so much (spotted) dick.”

Related: CagePotato Stats: The MMA Weigh-In Failure Leaderboard

[RX]

“Missed it by this much.”

Put on your surprised face, kids:  Paul Daley stepped on the scales just minutes ago for his welterweight contest this weekend at BAMMA 7, and was recorded six pounds over the 170 pound limit.  He has been given two hours to sweat out the remaining pounds.  His opponent, Jordan Radev, came in at 170 on the first try.

At this point, Paul Daley making weight the first try would be more of a story, as this now makes the sixth time (by our count) that Semtex has tipped the scales in his own favor.

Apparently, the issue this time is a problem with sauna availability.  If that excuse sounds familiar, look at you paying attention — we could just pinch your cheeks.  Clearly, the UK is years behind the rest of the world in steam room technology, although you’d think they could fly in a specialized consultant from Finland or something.

CagePotato has been unable to confirm that Anthony Johnson just sent a text message to Daley, telling him to “stop eating so much (spotted) dick.”

Related: CagePotato Stats: The MMA Weigh-In Failure Leaderboard

[RX]

Oh, By the Way, Nick Diaz Is Fighting BJ Penn at UFC 137

First shit was a fantasy, then shit got real, then shit got crazy, and then shit got interesting…

In a positively shocking turn of events that no one could have seen coming, Dana White today announced via Twitter that Nick Diaz had been re-booked for a bout at UFC 137 — against BJ Penn.

With a simple swap of opponents, White deftly solved the headaches he had with Diaz and the two co-main events at UFC 137 without calling in a fighter on short notice, and simultaneously scored a huge amount of free publicity for the fight (Ed. note: Oh, the ironing.)

On top of that, White also managed to deal a pretty stiff blow to Diaz, without looking like a bad guy in the process.  Diaz now finds himself without a Strikeforce title or a fight for the UFC title, with fans jeering his own catchphrase back at him, facing a very tough veteran with a broad skill set that could very well beat him at his own game.

Ok, Nation: it’s going down.  Who ya got?

[RX]

First shit was a fantasy, then shit got real, then shit got crazy, and then shit got interesting…

In a positively shocking turn of events that no one could have seen coming, Dana White today announced via Twitter that Nick Diaz had been re-booked for a bout at UFC 137 — against BJ Penn.

With a simple swap of opponents, White deftly solved the headaches he had with Diaz and the two co-main events at UFC 137 without calling in a fighter on short notice, and simultaneously scored a huge amount of free publicity for the fight (Ed. note: Oh, the ironing.)

On top of that, White also managed to deal a pretty stiff blow to Diaz, without looking like a bad guy in the process.  Diaz now finds himself without a Strikeforce title or a fight for the UFC title, with fans jeering his own catchphrase back at him, facing a very tough veteran with a broad skill set that could very well beat him at his own game.

Ok, Nation: it’s going down.  Who ya got?

[RX]

Completely Unfounded Rumor of the Day: Diaz Meets Penn at UFC 137

Diaz wasn’t born with enough middle fingers.

The story of the week, by all rights, should have been that the UFC triumphed again and put together a huge heavyweight fight at the end of the year … until Nick Diaz wigged out and went AWOL, missing two beauty pageants press conferences and losing his shot at GSP’s title and all the riches that would follow. Now every MMA site on the web has three stories about the man from the 209, and we won’t start talking about Lesnar-Overeem until mid-September at the earliest.

Since we’re all speculating, CagePotato thought we would pass on this delicious rumor: Nick Diaz will still be competing at UFC 137, against BJ Penn.

Dana White told MMAJunkie yesterday that he was working on finding an opponent to replace Carlos Condit, and he obviously had someone in mind, saying “if I told you what I want to do with that fight you guys would flip out, so we’ll see what happens.”

Diaz wasn’t born with enough middle fingers. 

The story of the week, by all rights, should have been that the UFC triumphed again and put together a huge heavyweight fight at the end of the year … until Nick Diaz wigged out and went AWOL, missing two beauty pageants press conferences and losing his shot at GSP’s title and all the riches that would follow. Now every MMA site on the web has three stories about the man from the 209, and we won’t start talking about Lesnar-Overeem until mid-September at the earliest.

Since we’re all speculating, CagePotato thought we would pass on this delicious rumor:  Nick Diaz will still be competing at UFC 137, against BJ Penn.

Dana White told MMAJunkie yesterday that he was working on finding an opponent to replace Carlos Condit, and he obviously had someone in mind, saying “if I told you what I want to do with that fight you guys would flip out, so we’ll see what happens.”

See, White has a real problem in Diaz.  The last thing Zuffa wants to do is release him, since he would immediately sign a deal with another promotion like EliteXC or Bellator and be fighting again before Halloween.  Despite all the backlash against Diaz in the last twelve hours, he’s still a massively popular fighter because of his style, and White has started to catch on to the fact that cutting fighters too quickly only makes his competition stronger.

Expect the UFC to take the stance that pulling Diaz from the title fight is sufficient punishment for his unreliability and general sketchiness, and for them to carry on with “business as usual” with Diaz.  And the first step in that process will be the announcement that Diaz will have to face Baby Jay to start making amends.

A match between the two would be intriguing because both fighters have sharp boxing skills backed up with superlative groundwork, and both fighters have been criticized for inconsistency in the past.  Of course, Penn is inconsistent in that you never know who will show up at a BJ Penn fight, while Diaz is not consistently a rational human being.   The result:  a fight every bit as unpredictable and competitive as Diaz himself.

Now if they can just get him back into the Octagon…

[RX]

Bellator to Stream Preliminary Fights On Spike, Still Not Admitting They’re Leaving MTV2

Bellator is really stepping up their game with these promo videos. VidProps: BellatorMMA/YouTube

Well this is interesting: following in the pioneering steps of the UFC, Bellator is announcing that they will begin streaming the undercard fights on the series of tubes known as the internet.

That’s not the interesting part. The interesting part is who they’re partnering with: Spike. Yep, those guys.

According to a press release sent to the CagePotato Desk for Serious Journalism, You Guys (not actually a real place), the undercard fights will go live on Spike.com at 7pm ET as a lead-in for the main card broadcasts on MTV2 starting at 9pm. As we reported last week, the main cards will also be broadcast in HD on EPIX, which we personally confirmed is a extant channel that wasn’t made up by some Viacom dude with a stupid-long job title.

The press release included a quote from some Viacom dude (Executive Vice President, Digital Entertainment, MTV Networks Entertainment Group), a guy by the name of Erik Flannigan:

“Fight fans have been coming to our site for years for great mixed martial arts clips and information,” said Flannigan. “Now we are thrilled to provide them with action-packed live fighting each week.”

Bellator is really stepping up their game with these promo videos. VidProps: BellatorMMA/YouTube

Well this is interesting: following in the pioneering steps of the UFC, Bellator is announcing that they will begin streaming the undercard fights on the series of tubes known as the internet.

That’s not the interesting part.   The interesting part is who they’re partnering with: Spike. Yep, those guys.

According to a press release sent to the CagePotato Desk for Serious Journalism, You Guys (not actually a real place), the undercard fights will go live on Spike.com at 7pm ET as a lead-in for the main card broadcasts on MTV2 starting with the season premiere this Saturday at 9pm. As we reported last week, the main cards will also be broadcast in HD on EPIX, which we personally confirmed is a extant channel that wasn’t made up by some Viacom dude with a stupid-long job title.

The press release included a quote from some Viacom dude (Executive Vice President, Digital Entertainment, MTV Networks Entertainment Group), a guy by the name of Erik Flannigan:

“Fight fans have been coming to our site for years for great mixed martial arts clips and information,” said Flannigan. “Now we are thrilled to provide them with action-packed live fighting each week.”

“We are thrilled to join forces with Spike.com,” said Bellator head honcho Bjorn Rebney. “The Spike brand is synonymous with mixed martial arts worldwide and is another member of the MTV family, who does an incredible job in resonating with the hard-to-reach 18-to-34-year-old male audience.”

Now, call us crazy, but it seems like that move from MTV2 to Spike that everybody says is happening for Bellator, but Rebney denies every chance he gets – it’s happening. Rebney and company are slowly backing in to this whole Spike transition, all the while saying, “No, us? Move to Spike? We love MTV, and MTV loves us. Why should we move? We just left our toothbrush at Spike’s house totally by accident.  Hey, can you help us move some furniture around this weekend?”

That’s how it starts. First it’s just a toothbrush, maybe some body wash. Next thing MTV knows, Bellator is staying out all night, not calling, always claiming to be busy. Then one day they see Bellator wearing one of Spike’s old button down shirts and everyone is talking about how good they look since the two split up.

We just hope MTV can move on in a mature way, but you know they’ll probably just throw themselves at their old flame.

[RX]

Least Prepared MMA Fighter Ever Takes to the Cage, So Let’s Watch and Laugh

VidProps: KravMagaDesoto/YouTube

You know, we were really hesitant to post this at first. Here we have video of a fighter that has clearly spent about the same amount of time in training as the “Say Goodnight” guys, fighting in public, in front of a paying crowd, no less, and she’s being recorded. She’s clearly out of her depth, and dangerously overmatched. It is, quite frankly, a spectacle, and it’s probably bad for the sport, right?

That’s when we realized that we woke up cranky and crabby and possibly some other c-words. (Plus, it’s already shown up in every combat sports forum on the interwebs.)

While yes, the fighter is overmatched and could be hurt as a result, safety and professionalism win the day, as her opponent and the referee do a good job of ending the fight as soon as it becomes apparent that Mrs Butterbean has no defensive skills. (Or offensive skills. Really, not much in the way of skills on this lady at all.)

With those concerns assuaged, what we’re left with is some very amusing video of a fighter who reacts to an MMA fight like she’s being attacked by a hive of Tropical Rapist Bees intent on removing her clothing and stinging her repeatedly on the face and gut. Her striking is so bad it would still be ineffective if she had cybernetic hands dipped in glue and glass. And then set on fire.

CagePotato has been unable to confirm that the unnamed fighter thanked her trainer, Greg Stott, after the official announcement of her loss. Actually, we’ve been unable to find any info about this fight at all, and Krava Maga Desoto hasn’t shared any info with us. Perhaps it’s better for all involved if she just remains anonymous.

[RX]


VidProps: KravMagaDesoto/YouTube

You know, we were really hesitant to post this at first. Here we have video of a fighter that has clearly spent about the same amount of time in training as the “Say Goodnight” guys, fighting in public, in front of a paying crowd, no less,  and she’s being recorded. She’s clearly out of her depth, and dangerously overmatched. It is, quite frankly, a spectacle, and it’s probably bad for the sport, right?

That’s when we realized that we woke up cranky and crabby and possibly some other c-words.  (Plus, it’s already shown up in every combat sports forum on the interwebs.)

While yes, the fighter is overmatched and could be hurt as a result, safety and professionalism win the day, as her opponent and the referee do a good job of ending the fight as soon as it becomes apparent that Mrs Butterbean has no defensive skills. (Or offensive skills. Really, not much in the way of skills on this lady at all.)

With those concerns assuaged, what we’re left with is some very amusing video of a fighter who reacts to an MMA fight like she’s being attacked by a hive of Tropical Rapist Bees intent on removing her clothing and stinging her repeatedly on the face and gut.  Her striking is so bad it would still be ineffective if she had cybernetic hands dipped in glue and glass.   And then set on fire.

CagePotato has been unable to confirm that the unnamed fighter thanked her trainer, Greg Stott, after the official announcement of her loss. Actually, we’ve been unable to find any info about this fight at all, and Krava Maga Desoto hasn’t shared any info with us. Perhaps it’s better for all involved if she just remains anonymous.

[RX]