Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Vale Tudo legend Rickson Gracie is partnering with a new MMA organization in Brazil, y’all, and he’s putting his own unique stamp on the format and rules. Some are new ideas, many are ones tried before and at least one is just kinda weird.
Our friends over at GracieMag have the full story on the new Mestre do Combate, debuting November 22nd. Below we have some of the highlights.
Teams – Rickson’s organization will use a team format of some sort, akin to what the now defunct IFL used.
Rounds – There will just be two, like in the old Pride non title bouts. The first round will be ten minutes and the second will be five.
Cannot be saved by the bell – So this is interesting. “Fighters will not have the luxury of being saved by the bell: if a submission hold is in place when the bell sounds, they will have to defend or tap out first for the fight to end,” GracieMag reports. What do you think of this rule, nation? I think its a compelling idea, even if it could lead to some messy and uneven arbitrary implementation.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Vale Tudo legend Rickson Gracie is partnering with a new MMA organization in Brazil, y’all, and he’s putting his own unique stamp on the format and rules. Some are new ideas, many are ones tried before and at least one is just kinda weird.
Our friends over at GracieMag have the full story on the new Mestre do Combate, debuting November 22nd. Below we have some of the highlights.
Teams – Rickson’s organization will use a team format of some sort, akin to what the now defunct IFL used.
Rounds – There will just be two, like in the old Pride non title bouts. The first round will be ten minutes and the second will be five.
Cannot be saved by the bell – So this is interesting. “Fighters will not have the luxury of being saved by the bell: if a submission hold is in place when the bell sounds, they will have to defend or tap out first for the fight to end,” GracieMag reports. What do you think of this rule, nation? I think its a compelling idea, even if it could lead to some messy and uneven arbitrary implementation.
“Judges’” decision – Speaking of potentially messy and arbitrary, “in the event of a fight ending without a submission or knockout, the decision-making system is a curious one: the referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy has one vote, Master Rickson has another, and the audience watching at the venue or over television has a tie-breaking vote.”
Ok, so let us linger on this one for a moment. Being partial to everything Rickson, I don’t have a fundamental problem with him serving in a judging capacity for MMA fights. The guy knows what he’s looking at and he’s certainly more qualified than most current MMA judges. However, his exact role with the organization has not really been publicly specified and there could be issues there. Is he a promoter? Is he a part owner? Is he both? In either case, I’m not sure how I feel about a promoter or organization executive deciding who has won fights, because they could easily be compelled, even if subconsciously, to vote for the more marketable fighter since that fighter might make them more money.
Also, what are the criteria that Rickson, McCarthy and the fans are supposed to use to judge? Oh yeah, having the ref score a fight is a horrible and dangerous idea.
From conversations I’ve had with top refs in the past, I’m rather surprised that McCarthy would even agree to doing this. From what I understand, refs have their hands full just making sure fighters are safe and keeping to the time and rules. If McCarthy is to cast a judging vote to a fight he has just refereed it certainly seems like he’d then have to either
A.) Divert some of his attention from rule enforcement and safety to thinking about who is winning, or
B.) Keep his full attention focused on safety in the ring, in which case he’d probably not have a great idea of who won the fight immediately after.
How, exactly, will fans vote? Will it be a majority thing and they all have two buttons attached to their seats so they can choose who they thought won? Or will it be like a college open mic night where applause is used to determine the winner. In which case, will there be a decibel meter to determine who, exactly, received the louder applause or will some person decide who had more support? If the latter, who will that person be? [Ed. Note: Possibly via text message voting, but who actually takes part in text message voting at stadiums? Other than me that one time fans were asked which ethnic stereotype will run around Miller Park in a sausage costume fastest, for obvious reasons. Don’t judge me.]
Weight – So yeah, Mestre do Combate will have same day weigh ins. The idea is to discourage harmful weight cutting by fighters and to encourage to fight at their natural weights. Love the concept, hope it works. Amateur wrestlers have to weigh in the same day as competition and they still cut a lot of water weight often times.
Elbows – No elbows. Sorry, that sucks. A real Jiu Jitsu practitioner needs to ultimately learn how to deal with the different range and angles that elbow strikes pose on the feet and on the ground. At least professional MMA fighters should learn how to.
I’ll definitely be watching this event in November. I love anytime someone new enters the space. It allows for more opportunities for fighters. Let’s see how all these rules play out. What’s your prediction, ‘taters?
Technical bouts, messy albatross or something in between?
Directed by Bobby Razak, whom you may know as the man behind the amazing Tapout short film, The Future of MMA (that video is after the jump), The History of MMA takes a nostalgic look back at the highs and lows of the sport we love oh so much, and includes commentary from several legends of the sport, including Bas Rutten, Frank Shamrock, Mark Coleman, and referee Big John McCarthy among others. And as luck would have it, Mr. Razak decided to drop the trailer yesterday. We would advise that you check it out.
As you can see, the film touches on many of MMA’s most infamous moments; John McCain’s labeling of the sport as “human cockfighting,” its evolution through Pancrase, and the moment Tito Ortiz decided he had what it took to roc da mic right, yeah. On a side note, we bet Tank Abbott is gonna be pissed when he finds out that his name and photo appear whilst Bas Rutten describes how the UFC used to bring in “big guys with no skill.”
Anyway, join us after the jump to check out The Future of MMA, as well as an up close and personal excerpt from The History of MMA featuring Fred Ettish, a fighter whom, after getting obliterated in his only professional mixed martial arts contest at UFC 2, came back to claim his first win in 2009. At age 53.
Directed by Bobby Razak, whom you may know as the man behind the amazing Tapout short film, The Future of MMA (that video is after the jump), The History of MMA takes a nostalgic look back at the highs and lows of the sport we love oh so much, and includes commentary from several legends of the sport, including Bas Rutten, Frank Shamrock, Mark Coleman, and referee Big John McCarthy among others. And as luck would have it, Mr. Razak decided to drop the trailer yesterday. We would advise that you check it out.
As you can see, the film touches on many of MMA’s most infamous moments; John McCain’s labeling of the sport as “human cockfighting,” its evolution through Pancrase, and the moment Tito Ortiz decided he had what it took to roc da mic right, yeah. On a side note, we bet Tank Abbott is gonna be pissed when he finds out that his name and photo appear whilst Bas Rutten describes how the UFC used to bring in “big guys with no skill.”
Anyway, join us after the jump to check out The Future of MMA, as well as an up close and personal excerpt from The History of MMA featuring Fred Ettish, a fighter whom, after getting obliterated in his only professional mixed martial arts contest at UFC 2, came back to claim his first win in 2009. At age 53.
The History of MMA
Fred Ettish Interview
Details remain sketchy about The History of MMA’s release date, but we will keep you updated on any developments as they transpire.
It’s a little bit funny and a little bit sad that there are probably a million or more people who watched the UFC on Fox Saturday night — people who had never seen a UFC fight before — who came to the conclusion that Cain Velasquez is a bum.
Velasquez lasted only a minute before Junior Dos Santos finished him off with a right hand to the ear and several punches on the ground, and to the uninitiated it might have looked like Velasquez just isn’t all that good. But although we all have a tendency to overreact when a fighter suffers a dramatic knockout loss, let’s take a step back for just a moment to remember that Cain Velasquez is really, really good.
I’ll be shocked if Velasquez doesn’t fight for the UFC title again in the next couple of years. Velasquez will be back.
What makes me so confident in Cain? The fundamental reason is that Velasquez is simply one of the most talented heavyweights that MMA has ever seen. We’ve been hearing it since 2006, when Velasquez first decided to fight professionally: Everyone in the MMA world who saw him then agreed that he was the perfect physical specimen to become an elite MMA fighter. The strong wrestling base, the speed, the power, the athleticism. This guy is the total package. That hasn’t changed because of one bad night against Dos Santos.
The other reason I feel so sure that the 29-year-old Velasquez will be back is the other thing we’ve heard about Velasquez since Day One: He has a phenomenal work ethic. Velasquez isn’t the type to deal with a setback by packing it in. Velasquez is the type to get right back into the gym and immediately start working to get better.
The one caveat I should add there is that I think Velasquez may have been a bit out of shape for this fight. I spoke to Velasquez during his recovery from shoulder surgery, and he mentioned that he wasn’t able to run while his shoulder was immobilized, and that as a result he had gained weight. He came in at 249 pounds for the Dos Santos fight — five pounds heavier than he weighed against Brock Lesnar — and he looked puffier and less defined than he had previously. A big part of trusting in Velasquez’s work ethic is trusting that he’ll be in better shape for his next fight than he was against Dos Santos.
But I do trust that, and I trust that Velasquez is going to be competing for a UFC title again. The heavyweight division in the UFC is not particularly deep, and I’d probably pick Velasquez to beat anyone other than Dos Santos right now. If Velasquez gets back in the ring and gets better, there’s no reason to think he won’t earn a rematch with the man who’s just beaten him.
UFC on Fox notes — It’s too bad Fox decided only to broadcast one fight, because Ben Henderson‘s unanimous decision victory over Clay Guida deserved to be seen by more than just the hard-core fans who watched the online stream. Henderson put on a great show, and he’ll be a tough opponent for UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. Too bad that show was seen only by thousands online, instead of millions on Fox.
— The ending of the Robert Peralta–Mackens Semerzier fight was extremely unfortunate: The two men accidentally clashed heads, Smerzier took the worse end of the collision, and Peralta was able to capitalize and finish Semerzier off with punches. If referee Big John McCarthy had seen the accidental head butt he would have called a halt to the action to give Semerzier time to recover. But McCarthy missed it, and Peralta got the win.
— Ricardo Lamas is now 2-0 since dropping down to featherweight this year, and he’s looked great in both fights. He forced Cub Swanson to tap out to an arm-triangle choke on Saturday night.
UFC on Fox quotes — “I didn’t want to follow up. There’s no need to be an A-hole.” — DeMarques Johnson on why he let up before the referee stepped in after knocking out Clay Harvison.
— “I came in here the best I’ve ever been.” — Dustin Poirier, after forcing Pablo Garza to tap to a D’Arce choke. The 22-year-old Poirier is now 3-0 since dropping to 145 pounds, and I agree with his own assessment that he looked better than ever. He looks to me like a future featherweight champion.
Good call McCarthy deducted a point from Matt Lucas for losing his mouthpiece three times. That’s an unusual reason for a point deduction, but it was absolutely the right call: It’s every fighter’s responsibility to keep his mouthpiece in his mouth, and McCarthy enforced the rule properly. “You’ve got to keep your mouthpiece in your mouth,” McCarthy told Lucas, in an instruction that should be so obvious it doesn’t need to be said. Amazingly, Lucas lost his mouthpiece one more time after the point deduction.
%VIRTUAL-Gallery-139230%
Bad call Aaron Rosa ended up beating Lucas by majority decision, 30-26, 30-26 and 28-28. I don’t know who the judge was who gave Lucas two of the three rounds against Rosa, but that judge couldn’t have been more wrong: The issue with the mouthpiece aside, Rosa clearly deserved to win the fight.
Stock up During his stint on The Ultimate Fighter, Alex Caceres was known more for his brash personality and his amusing nickname — Bruce Leroy — than for his ability to fight. But Caceres moved down to bantamweight and got the first win of his UFC career in a very impressive unanimous decision victory over Cole Escovedo. Caceres has always had a flashy striking style, but what I really liked about him on Saturday was that he showed off a much more sophisticated ground game than we had ever seen from him in the past. Bruce Leroy is heading in the right direction.
Stock down In 2007, Kid Yamamoto was considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. Since 2007, Yamamoto is 1-4, including a unanimous decision loss to Darren Uyenoyama on Saturday. This fight was a beatdown: The judges scored it 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26, and I agreed with the judge who had it 30-26, as I thought Uyenoyama deserved a 10-8 for the first round. It’s sad to say this about Yamamoto, but he just doesn’t have anything left. Maybe the UFC will keep him around for one more fight on its Japan card in February, but if so, that will be his retirement match.
Fight I want to see next Junior Dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem. The winner of the upcoming fight between Overeem and Brock Lesnar gets the next crack at Dos Santos, and although I have nothing against Lesnar, I think Overeem would be a more interesting fight because I believe Overeem and Dos Santos are the two hardest hitters in the heavyweight division. Overeem vs. Lesnar takes place on December 30, and Overeem vs. Dos Santos is my way-too-early pick for Fight of the Year in 2012.
It’s a little bit funny and a little bit sad that there are probably a million or more people who watched the UFC on Fox Saturday night — people who had never seen a UFC fight before — who came to the conclusion that Cain Velasquez is a bum.
Velasquez lasted only a minute before Junior Dos Santos finished him off with a right hand to the ear and several punches on the ground, and to the uninitiated it might have looked like Velasquez just isn’t all that good. But although we all have a tendency to overreact when a fighter suffers a dramatic knockout loss, let’s take a step back for just a moment to remember that Cain Velasquez is really, really good.
I’ll be shocked if Velasquez doesn’t fight for the UFC title again in the next couple of years. Velasquez will be back.
What makes me so confident in Cain? The fundamental reason is that Velasquez is simply one of the most talented heavyweights that MMA has ever seen. We’ve been hearing it since 2006, when Velasquez first decided to fight professionally: Everyone in the MMA world who saw him then agreed that he was the perfect physical specimen to become an elite MMA fighter. The strong wrestling base, the speed, the power, the athleticism. This guy is the total package. That hasn’t changed because of one bad night against Dos Santos.
The other reason I feel so sure that the 29-year-old Velasquez will be back is the other thing we’ve heard about Velasquez since Day One: He has a phenomenal work ethic. Velasquez isn’t the type to deal with a setback by packing it in. Velasquez is the type to get right back into the gym and immediately start working to get better.
The one caveat I should add there is that I think Velasquez may have been a bit out of shape for this fight. I spoke to Velasquez during his recovery from shoulder surgery, and he mentioned that he wasn’t able to run while his shoulder was immobilized, and that as a result he had gained weight. He came in at 249 pounds for the Dos Santos fight — five pounds heavier than he weighed against Brock Lesnar — and he looked puffier and less defined than he had previously. A big part of trusting in Velasquez’s work ethic is trusting that he’ll be in better shape for his next fight than he was against Dos Santos.
But I do trust that, and I trust that Velasquez is going to be competing for a UFC title again. The heavyweight division in the UFC is not particularly deep, and I’d probably pick Velasquez to beat anyone other than Dos Santos right now. If Velasquez gets back in the ring and gets better, there’s no reason to think he won’t earn a rematch with the man who’s just beaten him.
UFC on Fox notes — It’s too bad Fox decided only to broadcast one fight, because Ben Henderson‘s unanimous decision victory over Clay Guida deserved to be seen by more than just the hard-core fans who watched the online stream. Henderson put on a great show, and he’ll be a tough opponent for UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. Too bad that show was seen only by thousands online, instead of millions on Fox.
— The ending of the Robert Peralta–Mackens Semerzier fight was extremely unfortunate: The two men accidentally clashed heads, Smerzier took the worse end of the collision, and Peralta was able to capitalize and finish Semerzier off with punches. If referee Big John McCarthy had seen the accidental head butt he would have called a halt to the action to give Semerzier time to recover. But McCarthy missed it, and Peralta got the win.
— Ricardo Lamas is now 2-0 since dropping down to featherweight this year, and he’s looked great in both fights. He forced Cub Swanson to tap out to an arm-triangle choke on Saturday night.
UFC on Fox quotes — “I didn’t want to follow up. There’s no need to be an A-hole.” — DeMarques Johnson on why he let up before the referee stepped in after knocking out Clay Harvison.
— “I came in here the best I’ve ever been.” — Dustin Poirier, after forcing Pablo Garza to tap to a D’Arce choke. The 22-year-old Poirier is now 3-0 since dropping to 145 pounds, and I agree with his own assessment that he looked better than ever. He looks to me like a future featherweight champion.
Good call McCarthy deducted a point from Matt Lucas for losing his mouthpiece three times. That’s an unusual reason for a point deduction, but it was absolutely the right call: It’s every fighter’s responsibility to keep his mouthpiece in his mouth, and McCarthy enforced the rule properly. “You’ve got to keep your mouthpiece in your mouth,” McCarthy told Lucas, in an instruction that should be so obvious it doesn’t need to be said. Amazingly, Lucas lost his mouthpiece one more time after the point deduction.
%VIRTUAL-Gallery-139230%
Bad call Aaron Rosa ended up beating Lucas by majority decision, 30-26, 30-26 and 28-28. I don’t know who the judge was who gave Lucas two of the three rounds against Rosa, but that judge couldn’t have been more wrong: The issue with the mouthpiece aside, Rosa clearly deserved to win the fight.
Stock up During his stint on The Ultimate Fighter, Alex Caceres was known more for his brash personality and his amusing nickname — Bruce Leroy — than for his ability to fight. But Caceres moved down to bantamweight and got the first win of his UFC career in a very impressive unanimous decision victory over Cole Escovedo. Caceres has always had a flashy striking style, but what I really liked about him on Saturday was that he showed off a much more sophisticated ground game than we had ever seen from him in the past. Bruce Leroy is heading in the right direction.
Stock down In 2007, Kid Yamamoto was considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. Since 2007, Yamamoto is 1-4, including a unanimous decision loss to Darren Uyenoyama on Saturday. This fight was a beatdown: The judges scored it 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26, and I agreed with the judge who had it 30-26, as I thought Uyenoyama deserved a 10-8 for the first round. It’s sad to say this about Yamamoto, but he just doesn’t have anything left. Maybe the UFC will keep him around for one more fight on its Japan card in February, but if so, that will be his retirement match.
Fight I want to see next Junior Dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem. The winner of the upcoming fight between Overeem and Brock Lesnar gets the next crack at Dos Santos, and although I have nothing against Lesnar, I think Overeem would be a more interesting fight because I believe Overeem and Dos Santos are the two hardest hitters in the heavyweight division. Overeem vs. Lesnar takes place on December 30, and Overeem vs. Dos Santos is my way-too-early pick for Fight of the Year in 2012.
Thanks to everybody who submitted questions to Dan Severn last week! Today’s installment of Dan’s no-holds-barred Q&A column is loaded with classic stories and grown-man wisdom, so get comfortable and read on. You can support the MMA living legend by visiting DanSevern.com and Dan’s Facebook page, and you can support us by kicking in a few bucks to CagePotato’s Movember Team Page. Keep growing them mo’s, and post your latest moustache photos on our Facebook wall…
skeletor asks: Did you ever feel bad during the no holds barred/no weight classes days destroying guys that were so much smaller then you?
Dan Severn: I never felt bad because of size difference but I did sort of feel bad in general because it was not in my nature to be violent. For example, when I had Oleg Taktarov in the cage and was dropping knees on him, and he couldn’t defend himself. The match wasn’t being halted and he didn’t have the rational mindset to tap out. Even my first loss against Royce Gracie, I was staring right into a man’s soul realizing what crude submissions that I knew weren’t working and recognizing that I was going to have to strike this guy. So I struggled more with my conscience then I ever did with an opponent. I think I am cut from a different cloth than a lot of different fighters who came from checkered pasts and were used to getting into fights. I wasn’t used to that. For instance, if you look at the fight between me and Ken Shamrock, he was adopted and grew up on the mean streets fighting. My upbringing was completely different. I don’t really understand that mentality.
When I was inside Royce’s guard, from my perspective I was in the dominant position because as a wrestler, I was used to being on top. As I am fighting I can see Royce looking over to his father in his corner, and I could see exactly what was going through his mind. His mind was saying, “Hey dad, I’m hanging in here but if you want to throw in the towel, I wouldn’t hold it against you.” Helio actually had the towel in his hand and lifted his arm up a little bit and then shook his head no. I remember thinking, you old bastard…you would sacrifice your kid for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.
Thanks to everybody who submitted questions to Dan Severn last week! Today’s installment of Dan’s no-holds-barred Q&A column is loaded with classic stories and grown-man wisdom, so get comfortable and read on. You can support the MMA living legend by visiting DanSevern.com and Dan’s Facebook page, and you can support us by kicking in a few bucks to CagePotato’s Movember Team Page. Keep growing them mo’s, and post your latest moustache photos on our Facebook wall…
skeletor asks: Did you ever feel bad during the no holds barred/no weight classes days destroying guys that were so much smaller then you?
Dan Severn: I never felt bad because of size difference but I did sort of feel bad in general because it was not in my nature to be violent. For example, when I had Oleg Taktarov in the cage and was dropping knees on him, and he couldn’t defend himself. The match wasn’t being halted and he didn’t have the rational mindset to tap out. Even my first loss against Royce Gracie, I was staring right into a man’s soul realizing what crude submissions that I knew weren’t working and recognizing that I was going to have to strike this guy. So I struggled more with my conscience then I ever did with an opponent. I think I am cut from a different cloth than a lot of different fighters who came from checkered pasts and were used to getting into fights. I wasn’t used to that. For instance, if you look at the fight between me and Ken Shamrock, he was adopted and grew up on the mean streets fighting. My upbringing was completely different. I don’t really understand that mentality.
When I was inside Royce’s guard, from my perspective I was in the dominant position because as a wrestler, I was used to being on top. As I am fighting I can see Royce looking over to his father in his corner, and I could see exactly what was going through his mind. His mind was saying, “Hey dad, I’m hanging in here but if you want to throw in the towel, I wouldn’t hold it against you.” Helio actually had the towel in his hand and lifted his arm up a little bit and then shook his head no. I remember thinking, you old bastard…you would sacrifice your kid for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.
bgoldstein asks: Can you please explain what you’re wearing in this picture?
This was for the Arnold Shwarzenegger Classic. That is actually body paint, as I was dressed up as one of the Predators. There was something going on in which they were honoring Arnold and they had the different characters that he had gone up against and I was in this tanning salon supplies booth and they asked if they could airbrush me to be the Predator. It was probably one of the kookier things that I’ve been involved with in terms of standing there in my trunks and letting someone airbrush paint me in front of everyone. Later in the evening, there was an event in which they brought up the various Predators on stage as a tribute to Arnold. It was kind of cool because they did such a good job — it looks like I’m actually wearing a costume.
Luiz Alexandre asks: When you are not fighting/coaching/giving seminars, what do you do to chill out?
I play a mean game of ping pong. It seems that at all the different wrestling camps that I attended, there would always be ping pong tables set up. So once training was done and you were just sitting around trying to kill time, there was always ping pong to play. We’d always set up tournaments with the other campers. Actually my kids are pretty good ping pong players as well. That comedy movie Balls of Fury that came out a few years ago is one of my favorites. I’m more of a physical type of game player than a video gamer. I do like the new version of the Wii games because it gets people moving instead of being sedentary — something that I have against the boob tube, computers, and hand-held devices which have literally helped contribute to the U.S.A. becoming one of the most obese countries on the planet. We are the land of plenty, which is good, but at some point you’ve got to learn to say no.
bgoldstein (again) asks:How did you feel when Tom Lawlor came out dressed as you for the UFC 113 weigh-ins?
I laughed and thought it was really funny. It’s cool to know that people respect me and impersonation is a part of that. The fact that he chose to wear the small shorts and the mustache and do that signature scream that I do, I thought it was great. I actually had quite a few friends send me the link to this when it happened.
BuckWild asks: Was there ever someone you were afraid of that you had to fight? Even a little?
I was probably more afraid in my younger days but fear was never really something I struggled with. I was calm…perhaps too calm. Big John McCarthy refereed some of my early matches and before the fights he would always go over the rules with each of the fighters backstage. So when he asked us in the cage if there were any questions, he usually didn’t expect fighters to have any last-minute questions. However, when he asked me I would always try and say something corny like, “Where did all that money go that my parents paid for piano lessons?” He said that when he heard it, he looked back but he could not believe that it was me who said it because I had my game face on.
The next time I came up I said, “You know I wouldn’t need to do something like this if you’d just give me the winning lottery numbers.” Each time, I had my one liner in there which was one of the ways that helped to keep me relaxed. I got to know Big John and his wife Elaine McCarthy pretty well — she was the travel agent for the UFC back when Art Davie and Rorian Gracie owned it — and during one of the matches I actually started having a conversation with Big John. He told me later that I was one of the scariest guys he’d ever met because I was carrying on like it was no big deal. There are referees and rules and regulations so there really isn’t a lot to worry about.
Situations outside of competitive sports can be scarier sometimes. I’ve actually been in more confrontations in the last 17 years or so than I had in the previous 17 years. That’s because I do a lot of appearances at sports bars and they tend to have a patron there who may have had too much to drink and they start being ignorant. There were probably three occasions where a drunken person was being rude enough that a fight could’ve actually happened. However, what I did to either defuse the situation or let them know my intentions, I would whip out my business card, write down the number to the UFC and hand it to them. I’d simply tell them that I’d never fought for free and I didn’t plan on starting any bad habits now. I’d say the nice thing about fighting me in the UFC is that there are rules, a referee and you won’t be more than 40 feet away from a medical practitioner at any time. I’d tell them that if this was going to go down right now without a referee and rules, you are going to want to make sure you at least have medical attention. Luckily, I never had to fight anybody because I guess that they could see I was a man of my word!
Brad Falk asks: What’s the best way to kill a bear?
I don’t think a person is going to be able to kill a bear using their bare hands. So either it has a heart attack in the process of it killing you or it chokes and dies as its eating. One way or another, it’ll get you. I’ve never heard of a human being victorious over a bear in hand-to-hand combat. My advice to you, Brad, is to stick to the city, don’t wander into the woods.
Filed under: Fighting”Big” John McCarthy considers refereeing MMA fights a passion and admits it was a mistake for him four years ago to leave officiating to become an analyst/commentator.
In an appearance on Tuesday’s edition of The MMA Hour, McCarth…
“Big” John McCarthy considers refereeing MMA fights a passion and admits it was a mistake for him four years ago to leave officiating to become an analyst/commentator.
In an appearance on Tuesday’s edition of The MMA Hour, McCarthy discussed his purpose in the sport, just one of the many topics in his new autobiography Let’s Get It On! written with journalist Loretta Hunt.
“I thought [making the jump to television] was at the time what I needed to do,” McCarthy said. “But looking at it now, years later, I was wrong I think.
“I looked at how the landscape was and I read it wrong and I probably internalized things and looked at things a certain way that other people weren’t looking at,” he continued. “That’s just part of human nature and life, and you got to make decisions and you got to live with those decisions and move on from there and learn from them and that’s what I’ve done.”
In December 2007, McCarthy made the announcement that he would join Canada’s The Fight Network on a full-time basis as an on-air personality. Fans accustomed to seeing him overlook fights inside of a cage would now have to become more familiar with him through his new hosting and analysis duties.
During the announcement, it was declared that McCarthy would “retire” after 14 years of officiating fights, totalling 535. Turns out, that was not the way McCarthy would have liked to have handled his transition, and it was an early sign he would soon have regrets about his new venture.
“I did not want to do all the retirement stuff, that was The Fight Network wanting to do that cause they wanted publicity,” McCarthy said. “I didn’t want any of that.”
Additionally, McCarthy considers the other mistake was the company he was joining. The impressions he had about the channel were different from what he would see in practice, citing specifically, backroom politics.
His stay would be short-lived. Just 11 months after the announcement of signing with The Fight Network, McCarthy returned to refereeing at a Nov. 21 Strikeforce event in San Jose. Taking the center of the cage that evening, McCarthy felt at home again.
“[Loving what you do] is the most important thing there is,” McCarthy said. “What makes people good at what they do, is loving what you do. I loved refereeing and I love refereeing now. That’s my passion.”
Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive, NewsThe MMA Hour will air on Tuesday this week due to Labor Day. Don’t worry, though, we still have a great lineup of guests planned for our 98th show.
* Daniel Cormier will talk about his Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix semi-final fight against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
* Jake Ellenberger will talk about his UFC Fight Night 25 main event against Jake Shields.
* Referee “Big” John McCarthy will discuss his storied career and the release of his new book, “Let’s Get it On!”
* And Showtime broadcaster Mauro Ranallo will discuss Saturday night’s Strikeforce event in Cincinnati, as well as other MMA news making headlines.
Of course, we’ll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193, 212-254-0237 or 212-254-0714.
*** You can also stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.
Watch the show live below beginning at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.
(Editor’s Note: Today’s MMA Hour is now over, but the video should be up Wednesday or Thursday.)
It’s a little bit funny and a little bit sad that there are probably a million or more people who watched the 
