Narrated by CNN personality/BJJ aficionadoAnthony Bourdain, the half-hour “Bad Blood: Jones vs. Cormier” special aired recently on FOX Sports 1, and begins with a quick retrospective of some of the UFC’s other great rivalries. The Shamrock/Tito “living death” moment shows up within the first 10 seconds, which I appreciated. But also, we’ve got BJ Penn explaining to Georges St-Pierre that he wants to kill him — “and I’m not joking about this” — and clips of Brock Lesnar and Rampage Jackson acting rather unprofessional. The implication is, Jon Jones may have threatened Daniel Cormier with actual death, but look, sometimes these things happen in MMA.
Anyway, it’s worth a look if you have any patience left for Jones/Cormier pre-fight hype. There aren’t too many surprises here, but we do get an interesting look at Cormier’s training relationship with Khadzhimurat Gatsalov, the phenom Russian wrestler who defeated Cormier at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Plus: Some never-before-heard insults (“How much you weigh right now, fat fuck?”).
It also makes me wonder: If Jones and Cormier never brawled on stage, and never cursed each other out during that SportsCenter interview, how would the UFC promote this fight? Would it be enough that the two greatest light-heavyweights in the world were facing each other on January 3rd? How badly do we need bad blood?
Narrated by CNN personality/BJJ aficionadoAnthony Bourdain, the half-hour “Bad Blood: Jones vs. Cormier” special aired recently on FOX Sports 1, and begins with a quick retrospective of some of the UFC’s other great rivalries. The Shamrock/Tito “living death” moment shows up within the first 10 seconds, which I appreciated. But also, we’ve got BJ Penn explaining to Georges St-Pierre that he wants to kill him — “and I’m not joking about this” — and clips of Brock Lesnar and Rampage Jackson acting rather unprofessional. The implication is, Jon Jones may have threatened Daniel Cormier with actual death, but look, sometimes these things happen in MMA.
Anyway, it’s worth a look if you have any patience left for Jones/Cormier pre-fight hype. There aren’t too many surprises here, but we do get an interesting look at Cormier’s training relationship with Khadzhimurat Gatsalov, the phenom Russian wrestler who defeated Cormier at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Plus: Some never-before-heard insults (“How much you weigh right now, fat fuck?”).
It also makes me wonder: If Jones and Cormier never brawled on stage, and never cursed each other out during that SportsCenter interview, how would the UFC promote this fight? Would it be enough that the two greatest light-heavyweights in the world were facing each other on January 3rd? How badly do we need bad blood?
Last night, Deadspin posted newly leaked footage from The Day the Clown Cried, a never-released Jerry Lewis movie about “a clown in a concentration camp who entertains Jewish children as they are led to their deaths.” That film should have never made it to production in the first place, just based on its horrific premise alone. But it was actually completed in 1972, and would have made it to theaters if the movie’s producers didn’t have the good sense to bury it. Since then, it has become one of cinema’s greatest urban legends, only viewed by a handful of Jerry Lewis’s friends.
If there is an MMA equivalent to The Day the Clown Cried, it’s this: A 2007 Spike TV special called “Bad Blood: Dana White vs. Tito Ortiz” which follows the UFC president and former light-heavyweight champion as they prepare for a three-round boxing match, which was organized only because of their mutual dislike. The premise is just as absurd, the footage is just as embarrassing, and luckily for humanity, the fight never happened.
In fact, the 90-minute special ends with the revelation that the fight isn’t happening. Ortiz fails to show up to the weigh-ins — which he claims was due to a contract dispute — and the Nevada State Athletic Commission officially cancels the proceedings. So in a way, this video is also MMA’s version of Geraldo’s visit to Al Capone’s vault, in terms of pathetic anti-climax. But in this case, we were spared an indulgent freak show on top of a serious lose-lose situation for the UFC: Either Dana White gets his ass kicked on cable TV, or a 37-year-old fight promoter out-strikes a future Hall of Famer. It wouldn’t be a good look in either scenario, and we can’t help wondering if it was all just hype in the first place.
Last night, Deadspin posted newly leaked footage from The Day the Clown Cried, a never-released Jerry Lewis movie about “a clown in a concentration camp who entertains Jewish children as they are led to their deaths.” That film should have never made it to production in the first place, just based on its horrific premise alone. But it was actually completed in 1972, and would have made it to theaters if the movie’s producers didn’t have the good sense to bury it. Since then, it has become one of cinema’s greatest urban legends, only viewed by a handful of Jerry Lewis’s friends.
If there is an MMA equivalent to The Day the Clown Cried, it’s this: A 2007 Spike TV special called “Bad Blood: Dana White vs. Tito Ortiz” which follows the UFC president and former light-heavyweight champion as they prepare for a three-round boxing match, which was organized only because of their mutual dislike. The premise is just as absurd, the footage is just as embarrassing, and luckily for humanity, the fight never happened.
In fact, the 90-minute special ends with the revelation that the fight isn’t happening. Ortiz fails to show up to the weigh-ins — which he claims was due to a contract dispute — and the Nevada State Athletic Commission officially cancels the proceedings. So in a way, this video is also MMA’s version of Geraldo’s visit to Al Capone’s vault, in terms of pathetic anti-climax. But in this case, we were spared an indulgent freak show on top of a serious lose-lose situation for the UFC: Either Dana White gets his ass kicked on cable TV, or a 37-year-old fight promoter out-strikes a future Hall of Famer. It wouldn’t be a good look in either scenario, and we can’t help wondering if it was all just hype in the first place.
(Video courtesy YouTube/FightHubTV)
At last week’s Bellator show, middleweight Hector Lombard raised a few eyebrows when he said he wanted to face recently-signed Strikeforce heavyweight Josh Barnett in his next bout.
It turns out that the pair ha…
It turns out that the pair have a beef between them that can be traced back to a particular sparring session in 2008.
According to Lombard’s former and Barnett’s current trainer from Combat Submission Wrestling, Erik Paulson, a day or two after a bloody 30-minute boxing match between the duo at the gym, "The Babyfaced Assassin" dragged Lombard into the cage and used his weight advantage to hold him on the canvas and humiliate the Cuban judoka in front of his teammates.
Paulson revealed that the incident was the reason Lombard walked away from the gym to join American Top Team and said he’s surprised that he’s still upset over it.
