“I really do believe that madness and excellence are just next door neighbors.”
So says Joe Rogan in this fascinating highlight reel focusing on a trio of “extreme winners” — Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, and Michael Jordan — narrated by clips from Rogan’s podcast. Rogan proposes that “a lot of success in athletics comes down to almost like a psychosis. At a real high level of anything, there’s a certain amount of almost crazy behavior to get to this incredible position…there’s a madness.”
Over the clips covering each athlete’s monumental career, Rogan shares his thoughts about the behavior and performances of each athlete, and what made them such outliers in professional sports. Maybe this is only tangentially related to MMA, but if you’re interested in Ali and Tyson, and the mental edges (or disorders?) that make athletic legends so different from the rest of humanity, you’ll want to watch this.
“I really do believe that madness and excellence are just next door neighbors.”
So says Joe Rogan in this fascinating highlight reel focusing on a trio of “extreme winners” — Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, and Michael Jordan — narrated by clips from Rogan’s podcast. Rogan proposes that “a lot of success in athletics comes down to almost like a psychosis. At a real high level of anything, there’s a certain amount of almost crazy behavior to get to this incredible position…there’s a madness.”
Over the clips covering each athlete’s monumental career, Rogan shares his thoughts about the behavior and performances of each athlete, and what made them such outliers in professional sports. Maybe this is only tangentially related to MMA, but if you’re interested in Ali and Tyson, and the mental edges (or disorders?) that make athletic legends so different from the rest of humanity, you’ll want to watch this.
When a delusional wannabe-fighter like Jose Canseco gets wrecked in a celebrity boxing match, it comes as no surprise to anybody. But when it happens to an actual former UFC fighter like Gabe Ruediger? I mean, how do you explain that? Sure, Gabe wasn’t exactly a successful UFC fighter — and radio host/author/adventurer Jason Ellis is a tough S.O.B. who knows how to throw them hands — but when the two met in a boxing exhibition at Ellismania 8 in Las Vegas last month, you’d assume that Ruediger would be the favorite. Instead, he got knocked out cold at the end of the round two. The fact that Gabe wore a t-shirt into the ring suggests that he might not have taken his training camp as seriously as he should have.
And yes, that’s Jason “Mayhem” Miller shouting on the mic; a few weeks later, he would be begging Dana White to kill himself. If only we could have held onto that moment, when Miller seemed happy, a packed arena was cheering Gabe Ruediger’s latest sad defeat, and everything seemed right with the world.
When a delusional wannabe-fighter like Jose Canseco gets wrecked in a celebrity boxing match, it comes as no surprise to anybody. But when it happens to an actual former UFC fighter like Gabe Ruediger? I mean, how do you explain that? Sure, Gabe wasn’t exactly a successful UFC fighter — and radio host/author/adventurer Jason Ellis is a tough S.O.B. who knows how to throw them hands — but when the two met in a boxing exhibition at Ellismania 8 in Las Vegas last month, you’d assume that Ruediger would be the favorite. Instead, he got knocked out cold at the end of the round two. The fact that Gabe wore a t-shirt into the ring suggests that he might not have taken his training camp as seriously as he should have.
And yes, that’s Jason “Mayhem” Miller shouting on the mic; a few weeks later, he would be begging Dana White to kill himself. If only we could have held onto that moment, when Miller seemed happy, a packed arena was cheering Gabe Ruediger’s latest sad defeat, and everything seemed right with the world.
Speaking of things that happened last night that were laughably predictable, Kimbo Slice is still earning his bread as a professional boxer. Well, perhaps “earning” is the wrong word. Earning implies that he is making it by winning competitive matches against reasonably credible opponents. Really, $kala is just giving Kimbo his bread at this point. Or, if you’re cheesy enough to go there, Shaw is just feeding the guy.
Speaking of things that happened last night that were laughably predictable, Kimbo Slice is still earning his bread as a professional boxer. Well, perhaps “earning” is the wrong word. Earning implies that he is making it by winning competitive matches against reasonably credible opponents. Really, $kala is just giving Kimbo his bread at this point. Or, if you’re cheesy enough to go there, Shaw is just feeding the guy.
His opponent last night was a Lamar, Arkansas pugilist named Jesse Porter*, who entered the bout with a 3-4 professional boxing record. Porter had never gone the distance in his boxing career, with all seven fights ending by knockout. Furthermore, he was coming off of a knockout loss to Lee Bagan forty two seconds into the second round of their bout, which marked the longest that Porter had lasted in a fight he lost.
Kimbo Slice is now 5-0 as a professional boxer, while Jesse Porter gets to drift back into obscurity where he belongs. But look on the bright side: It was a quick fight that delivered a knockout, and both fighters got paid more for this bout than I got paid to mock it. There’s (something resembling) dignity in knowing that.
* There’s actually some confusion as to who the hapless can was. A lot of sites are reporting that 1-0 boxer Richard Dawson was his opponent last night instead of Jesse Porter. AllTheBestFights.com’s review of the bout sums up the confusion with the unintentionally hilarious ”at the moment we don’t know exactly who is his opponent”. In a way, that’s probably for the best.
(Kimbo performing a dramatic retelling of the Samuel L. Jackson narrated “Go the Fuck to Sleep” by way of Tay Bledsoe.)
Youtube Sensation/UFC vet/pornstar confidantKevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson will be looking to improve his professional boxing record to 4-0 come March 24th, when he welcomes former MMA fighter Mike Glenn to the boxing world at the O’Reilly Center in Springfield, Missouri in a card dubbed Fight Night Returns.
Since being ousted from the UFC following a second round TKO loss to Matt Mitrione at UFC 113 and subsequently calling it a day on his MMA career, Slice has scored three straight victories inside the boxing ring, the first two of which came via brutal one punch knockout inside the first round. It appeared as if the future Spike TV host was destined for WBA dominance, until he ran into personal fitness trainer and boxing newbee Charles Hackmann. Although Hackmann came into the bout on just a day’s notice, he managed to make it the distance with Kimbo and nearly finished him in the second round. The win, to say the least, was not impressive.
(Kimbo performing a dramatic retelling of the Samuel L. Jackson narrated “Go the Fuck to Sleep” by way of Tay Bledsoe.)
Youtube Sensation/UFC vet/pornstar confidantKevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson will be looking to improve his professional boxing record to 4-0 come March 24th, when he welcomes former MMA fighter Mike Glenn to the boxing world at the O’Reilly Center in Springfield, Missouri in a card dubbed Fight Night Returns.
Since being ousted from the UFC following a second round TKO loss to Matt Mitrione at UFC 113 and subsequently calling it a day on his MMA career, Slice has scored three straight victories inside the boxing ring, the first two of which came via brutal one punch knockout inside the first round. It appeared as if the future Spike TV host was destined for WBA dominance, until he ran into personal fitness trainer and boxing newbee Charles Hackmann. Although Hackmann came into the bout on just a day’s notice, he managed to make it the distance with Kimbo and nearly finished him in the second round. The win, to say the least, was not impressive.
But fret not, Kimbo will be looking to silence that haters in his next bout, when he takes on Mike Glenn, a 5-6 MMA fighter making his professional boxing debut. It’s kind of sad to say this, but Glenn is without a doubt Slice’s toughest opponent to date. I mean, the man has only one TKO loss on his MMA record, and it was due to doctor’s stoppage, so we know he isn’t as KO-prone as the other gentlemen K. Ferg has faced. And that’s saying something, right? Anyone?
Though his record is less than impressive, Glenn does own a submission via armbar win over legendary Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, as well as a win under a major promotion–a first round TKO over Lee “Manimal” Brosseau at Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Babalu 2. No joke, Glenn’s last fight took place at the same venue that will hold his big debut, under an event titled Slay Marketing – Champions Collide: A Fight for the Kids. You cannot make that shit up.
So what say you, Potato Nation, will Slice improve to 5-0? Or will Glenn prove to be too much for him?
Admit it — you like to see fighters get gruesomely hung out to dry once in a while. Our knockout of the day comes to us from a kickboxing show in Trieste, Italy, over the weekend, in which Tadas Jonkus knocks out Giuseppe Patane so thoroughly that Patane sloooowly tumbles out of the ring, head-first. The sight would almost be comical, if not for the fact that his landing surely added even more brain-damage to the concussion he already suffered from that blitz of punches. Arrivederci, my dude.
Meanwhile, halfway around the world in Albuquerque, boxing champion/MMA fighter Holly Holm suffered the first knockout loss of her career, eating it in the seventh round against Anne Sophie Mathis. The good news is, she didn’t fall on her head afterwards. The bad news is, she was basically K.O.’d through the ropes twice, due to a dangerously inept referee. Take a look…
Admit it — you like to see fighters get gruesomely hung out to dry once in a while. Our knockout of the day comes to us from a kickboxing show in Trieste, Italy, over the weekend, in which Tadas Jonkus knocks out Giuseppe Patane so thoroughly that Patane sloooowly tumbles out of the ring, head-first. The sight would almost be comical, if not for the fact that his landing surely added even more brain-damage to the concussion he already suffered from that blitz of punches. Arrivederci, my dude.
Meanwhile, halfway around the world in Albuquerque, boxing champion/MMA fighter Holly Holm suffered the first knockout loss of her career, eating it in the seventh round against Anne Sophie Mathis. The good news is, she didn’t fall on her head afterwards. The bad news is, she was basically K.O.’d through the ropes twice, due to a dangerously inept referee. Take a look…
Skip to the 3:26 mark to see Holm get clearly knocked out as she’s caught up in the ropes. The ref is kind enough to untangle her arm and send her out for more punishment, which Mathis is game enough to dish out. An ugly and unexpected loss for Jon Jones’s inter-gender sparring partner.
Boxing legend Joe Frazier — whose aggressive style and notorious left hook earned him an Olympic gold medal in 1964 and an undisputed heavyweight title reign from 1970-1972 — died yesterday evening after a brief battle with liver cancer.
“The world has lost a great champion,” said Muhammad Ali, who fought Frazier three times in the ’70s, including their “Fight of the Century” first meeting (which Frazier won by unanimous decision) and their “Thrilla in Manila” rubber match (which Ali won by corner stoppage). “I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration. My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones,” Ali added.
From 1965-1981, Smokin’ Joe racked up a professional record of 32-4-1, with 27 wins by knockout; his only losses came against Ali and George Foreman. In recent years, Frazier spent his time running a boxing gym in Philadelphia, and trained his children Marvis and Jackie, who also competed professionally in boxing.
After the jump: Ten of the best Joe Frazier videos on the Internet.
Boxing legend Joe Frazier — whose aggressive style and notorious left hook earned him an Olympic gold medal in 1964 and an undisputed heavyweight title reign from 1970-1972 — died yesterday evening after a brief battle with liver cancer.
“The world has lost a great champion,” said Muhammad Ali, who fought Frazier three times in the ’70s, including their “Fight of the Century” first meeting (which Frazier won by unanimous decision) and their “Thrilla in Manila” rubber match (which Ali won by corner stoppage). “I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration. My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones,” Ali added.
From 1965-1981, Smokin’ Joe racked up a professional record of 32-4-1, with 27 wins by knockout; his only losses came against Ali and George Foreman. In recent years, Frazier spent his time running a boxing gym in Philadelphia, and trained his children Marvis and Jackie, who also competed professionally in boxing.
After the jump: Ten of the best Joe Frazier videos on the Internet.
(Frazier vs. Vadim Yemelyanov, 1964 Olympics, heavyweight boxing semi-finals.)
(Frazier defeats Jimmy Ellis by corner stoppage to become the undisputed heavyweight champion, 2/16/70)
(Frazier’s first WBC/WBA title defense against Bob Foster, 11/18/70. Knockout comes at the 1:23 mark.)
(The Fight of the Century, 3/8/71. Frazier defends his title for the second time and becomes the first person to defeat Muhammad Ali.)
(Frazier loses his title in a two-round ass kicking against George Foreman, 1/22/73)
On the next page: Ali gets his revenge, Frazier’s best knockouts, and Bill Cosby.
