It’s no secret UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and fellow Ultimate Fighter coach Miesha Tate don’t share much love for one another, but Tate just stepped up her admonishment for her long-time rival. In a blog post with Yahoo!, Tate attacks Rousey’s MMA fanhood while accusing her of using the sport simply as a springboard to acting.
While I find it interesting that this was really the first time the producers showed Ronda flipping me off, I really think the viewers are getting to see the real Ronda this season – and it’s not pretty. She’s got a great skillset and as an athlete she’s awesome. But she’s not interested in building female MMA, she’s interested in building Ronda MMA and then leaving for movies or something else.
She isn’t an MMA fan at heart. Shayna was the only fighter out of the 16 women who fought to get in the house that Ronda had heard of. The other girls, Ronda had no clue who they were, what they had done, where they had fought, nothing.
While Tate has been active on social media promoting The Ultimate Fighter, Rousey has been largely absent while in Bulgaria filming for The Expendables 3, even admitting she likely wouldn’t be watching the show herself.
There’s a responsibility to represent female MMA that comes with being the champion, just as there’s a responsibility to represent and promote the show when you coach TUF. It grates on my nerves that Ronda isn’t promoting this season, which fans are saying is the best for a while, because that’s what we as established fighters signed on to do: to share the spotlight with these fighters who desperately want to join us in the UFC.
Tate will face Rousey in a rematch of their 2012 Strikeforce title bout when they meet in the co-main event of UFC 168 for the UFC women’s bantamweight championship.
5 MUST-READ STORIES
JDS cut. Ahead of his 166 heavyweight title bout with Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos says he suffered a cut three weeks ago which required stitches.
Roy’s bad camp. After losing his boxing coach early on, Roy Nelson says his camp leading up to UFC 166 hasn’t been great. “I lost (training partner Muhammed ‘King) Mo’ Lawal. I lost Ryan Martinez, because in Bellator he broke his hand. It was just one of those camps where anything possibly that could’ve happened, happened.”
GSP not retiring. After some quotes attributed to Georges St-Pierre’s head coach alluded to an impending retirement for the UFC welterweight champ, Firas Zahabi now says his statement was taken out of context.
Five reasons to buy. After 105 events worth of free MMA, Bellator is finally asking you to pay for a card. Bloody Elbow tells you why you should oblige.
Lil’ Pettis. At just 20, Sergio Pettis says he’s already living the dream. “Now that I’m where I am, right now I’m very confident in myself and I feel I can throw whatever I want in there. It’s my playground.”
MEDIA STEW
Gilbert Melendez sounds off on Diego Sanchez, Pettis & the Diaz bros.
Super Sack with Tommy Toe Hold.
Luke’s latest weekly live chat.
Cooking with Bisping.
Highlights from Lohja Fight Night in Finland.
Episode 2 of Jorge Masvidal’s Tales from the Grind.
MMA in Afghanistan.
Friday finishes.
TWEETS
Meatier Head.
Feels rough but not as bad as I expected. No excuse for the poor performance. I made poor choice & choose2go2 sleep pic.twitter.com/UnzrKrvIGY
— OnlyMildlyCreepy (@mattmitrione) October 16, 2013
More judges?
@CubSwanson all judges should have access to monitors as they judge. Not sure having more judges helps but it’s worth a trial.
— Kenny Florian (@kennyflorian) October 16, 2013
Everyone was at the Flamengo match.
Jogo do mengão com @ThiagoJambo @BigfootSilva pic.twitter.com/sbYxQJMmFt
— Patricky Freire (@PatrickyPitbull) October 17, 2013
No jogo do Mengao !!oohh meu mengao eu gosto de vc!!!! http://t.co/4mBzuRZfJt
— Jose ‘Scarface’ Aldo (@josealdojunior) October 17, 2013
Champagne wishes.
Even In Monaco, the world’s second smallest country they know about you, @KingMoFH 🙂 @BellatorMMA FAMILY. pic.twitter.com/0zMVaRaqbZ
— Cheick Kongo (@kongo4real) October 17, 2013
You’ll be back.
So I’m no longer a xbox gamer. I’m a bowler now I’m addicted to the lanes
— Will Brooks (@illwillbrooks86) October 16, 2013
SUPER proud of the new @reebok version of my GO BEARD t shirt! You can buy one here: http://t.co/EH9u7KM2g0 pic.twitter.com/13pfiSpcj8
— Johny Hendricks (@JohnyHendricks) October 16, 2013
TUF reactions.
fake nice vs real mean
— Kaitlin Young (@kaitlin_young) October 17, 2013
great fight by @gentlemanjhill tough tough guy with a huge heart. #bromance
— michael wootten (@mikewootten) October 17, 2013
Great performance by @mikewootten. The Brits are bringing it on TUF
— TJ Grant (@TJ_Grant) October 17, 2013
Next week on #TUF18, a double header featuring: @CodyBollinger vs. @Sharkbait816 and @sarahcheesecake vs. @peggymorganmma. Who you got?
— The Ultimate Fighter (@TUFonFS1) October 17, 2013
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Announced yesterday (Oct. 16 2013)
Karo Parisyan vs. Cristiano Souza at Bellator 106
Zak Cummings vs. Sergio Moraes at TUF 18 Finale
Alexis Vila vs. Josh Rettinghouse at WSOF 6
FANPOST OF THE DAY
Today’s Fanpost of the Day comes via jackjohnbrown.
Keith Kizer: “I got interested in combat sports growing up and watching Ali fights”
Jack Brown Interview #94 – Keith Kizer – October, 2013
This is number ninety-four in my series of interviews with MMA fighters and personalities, and for this particular interview, I’m pleased to feature the longtime Executive Director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, Keith Kizer. Kizer has held his current position since 2006, and he has worked with the Commission since the mid-1990s after he first moved to Las Vegas. Kizer grew up a fan of combat sports, and that, combined with his experience as an attorney, led to his current role. As Executive Director, Kizer has been ringside for some of the greatest moments in recent combat sports’ history. He has also been at the center of some of the sports’ most recent controversies as well. Please enjoy the conversation below.
Jack Brown: You have been the Executive Director of the Nevada Athletic Commission since 2006, when you took over the position after former Executive Director, Marc Ratner, moved on to working for the UFC. Prior to that, you were the lead attorney for the Nevada Gaming Commission and the Nevada Gaming Control Board. How did your education and your work experience prior to 1997, the year you started working for the Commission, lead you to a career in this particular area of law?
Keith Kizer: I’m not sure that there is any direct or perfect or even preferred avenue to get to this type of position. It’s not just with respect to Nevada, but also with other states’ commissions or larger tribal commissions. There are a lot of different executive directors or executive officers throughout the United States and they probably have very different backgrounds from one another because it is such a unique position. You are first and foremost a government administrator, but then you are also the head of that jurisdiction’s day-to-day operations for some pretty important sports – boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts. With respect to myself, I was always a fan of all three of those sports and had gone to many of the kickboxing and boxing events that had taken place in Las Vegas between 1992, when I first came to town, and 1997, when I first started working with the Commission as one of their legal counsels. So it was something where I was very much interested as a fan, and I also had watched several of the UFCs when they were available on TV or by getting them from Blockbuster back then to watch the events that had already occurred, especially the first ten or so UFCs. So it was actually one of the reasons that I had moved to Las Vegas, the ability to go and watch live fights. Back then it was limited to boxing and kickboxing, but there were still some pretty important events that took place in both those sports in Las Vegas in the early 1990s. I think that helped. I think having the attorney’s knowledge, of course, to be the attorney, but also having the knowledge of following all three sports, but especially back then the boxing and the kickboxing, helped a lot for me to come aboard and not just give proper legal advice, but to also be a sounding board for some things that might not be considered legal issues but were on the periphery.
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Check out the rest of the post here.
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