UFC middleweight Brian Stann is a really good fighter, but he’s so much more than that.Stann is a bona fide American war hero. This is a man who, if he were involved in any other mainstream sport, would be a gigantic superstar simply because of his bac…
UFC middleweight Brian Stann is a really good fighter, but he’s so much more than that.
Stann is a bona fide American war hero. This is a man who, if he were involved in any other mainstream sport, would be a gigantic superstar simply because of his background as a Marine officer.
I’m sure you’ve heard the story by now, so there’s no need to rehash the whole thing. But the basics: Stann was a lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps and commanded the 2nd Mobile Assault Platoon of the 2nd Marines division. During Operation Matador outside of Karabilah, Iraq, Stann’s platoon came under fire by insurgents.
The Marines, under Stann’s direction, held out behind enemy lines for six days before being relieved. Stann coordinated air and tank attacks and was awarded the Silver Star for valor in combat.
Stann will detail the entire incident on Tuesday night’s episode of UFC Ultimate Insider, which airs at 10:30 p.m. ET on Fuel TV. It’s a harrowing look at the past of one of the UFC’s brightest stars.
Stann may not ever reach the championship pinnacle in the UFC, but it doesn’t matter. This is a man who is well spoken, highly intelligent and versed in just about any subject you can throw at him. I’ve long considered him the most marketable star on the UFC’s roster, and his recent appearance as a color commentator proved that he can excel in any area.
This is a fighter who could someday run for President. That’s not a joke, either. Stann will succeed in anything life throws at him, and he’ll do so admirably.
Tito Ortiz is getting his wish for one more UFC fight. He’s even getting his own hand-selected opponent, as the UFC confirmed this morning that the long-rumored third bout between Ortiz and Forrest Griffin will take place at UFC 148 in July.I stay fair…
Tito Ortiz is getting his wish for one more UFC fight. He’s even getting his own hand-selected opponent, as the UFC confirmed this morning that the long-rumored third bout between Ortiz and Forrest Griffin will take place at UFC 148 in July.
I stay fairly tuned into Twitter throughout the day, and I was shocked to see the immediate backlash on the fight from fans and journalists alike.
We’ve known this fight was coming down the pipeline for months, so it can’t be a surprise.
And what’s the big deal, anyway? Ortiz wants one last fight, and they’re giving it to him. Would you really rather see Ortiz—a legend of the sport and a guy who helped build the UFC into the global powerhouse it is today—be sent packing from the Octagon by someone like Jason Brilz or Rich Franklin?
Of course not. That’s a silly notion.
Griffin is the perfect final opponent for Ortiz. Forrest has zero desire to get anywhere near a title shot at this point in his career. He’s just waiting for his own opportunity to ride off into the hills. There aren’t any heavy expectations on either of these guys, and that’s just fine.
Need I point out that they’ve already faced each other twice, with each man taking a close split decision? In this day of immediate rematches that hold up the title pictures of entire divisions, doesn’t it make sense to let these two veterans square their issues, whether real or imagined?
The moment you’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived: Chael Sonnen, master of verbal warfare and top UFC middleweight, has written a book. “The Voice of Reason: Your VIP Pass to Enlightenment” hits store shelves on May 15, and if you haven’t…
The moment you’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived: Chael Sonnen, master of verbal warfare and top UFC middleweight, has written a book.
Need more convincing? Check out the intro to the book:
Presence. Tenacity. Insight. Omniscience. No need to look these words up. They are defined by yours truly. Who am I? I’m the one who needs no introduction, the walking thesaurus, the UFC’s most infamous and feared destroyer of men. I am Chael P. Sonnen, and you want to be just like me.
It’s your lucky day. What you are holding in your hands is nothing short of a V.I.P pass to enlightenment.
In the coming pages my humor and tales of heroic adventure will baptize you in superhuman greatness. Allow me to carry you like a frail damsel as I make a nightmarish decent into the bowels of Sao Paulo. Sit before me as a student as I teach you about my plans of creating a Chaelocracy, which translates to “A Better Earth.” Shower me with praise as I take you into my manly mitts like a lump of seemingly worthless clay and craft you into something far better than yourself—me.
Like all great men of myth and legend, I strive for the betterment of the human race. Prometheus brought us fire; Dana White brought us the modern day gladiator; and I bring you a step-by-step guide to being just like me. Do you have what it takes? Is there truly a chance that one day you will be able to walk in my shoes? Purchase this book and find out. There is no better day to stop being you and start trying to be me.
You’re welcome civilization.
Not convinced? Here is some addition information you will glean from The Voice of Reason:Why Dance Dance Revolution is the national fighting style of Brazil.How vegans are ruining themselves and the world.Why you should never feed carrots to a school bus.Why you don?t need an athlete to be your hero.How fighters and fashion models have the exact same job.Why republicans are more compassionate, pioneering, rebellious, and generally cooler than any liberal.
Inside this book I offer you my knowledge of physics, politics, linguistics, history, and physiology. Unless you are currently standing in the checkout line or speeding home, wanting to save my brilliance for when you are curled up in a recliner sipping on some tea, you have already failed at becoming something similar to me. Chael P. Sonnen knows what he wants and buys it. He doesn’t need a dust jacket to tell him a book is good. He can feel it.
This may already be the absolute best mixed martial arts book ever written, and it hasn’t even been released yet.
There’s been a lot of opposition to women’s mixed martial arts. To some pundits, seeing women punch each other in the face hits a nerve.It’s uncomfortable to many, even those plenty willing to let men batter each other into unconsciousness. Everything …
There’s been a lot of opposition to women’s mixed martial arts. To some pundits, seeing women punch each other in the face hits a nerve.
It’s uncomfortable to many, even those plenty willing to let men batter each other into unconsciousness. Everything in our collective cultural upbringing screams “wrong.” It’s not lady-like, uncouth, better left to the boys.
Others didn’t question a woman’s right to compete.
They simply didn’t think women belonged on the big stage. Men worked hard to build this sport, after all. Who were these women, competitors without the full breadth of martial skill and experience, to usurp a position on a major card for which a man had worked and trained harder?
Former UFC, IFL and Strikeforce executive Shannon Knapp was among these quiet critics.
“The first time I was asked to take a space away from one of my guys and give it to a girl? It was a hard sell,” Knapp admitted in an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report. “I felt like we were still fighting the fight for the men’s sport and all of the sudden I have to push one of my guys out and put a girl in there?
“That was my mentality. What changed that for me were women like Cyborg (Santos, the former Strikeforce 145 pound champion), women like Marloes Coenen. These girls were training like the boys and they came in to fight.”
Today, Knapp has done a complete 180.
The architect of Strikeforce’s lauded heavyweight class, Knapp was worried about the women’s sport when Zuffa purchased Strikeforce last year. UFC President Dana White had made it clear that he didn’t consider the women ready for UFC cards. Behind the scenes, some UFC executives were vocally concerned about how well mixing men and women would work for mainstream audiences.
The very future of women’s mixed martial arts was at stake. Knapp knew she had to act.
“I like the fight. I like to make a difference,” Knapp said. “I started getting phone calls from all these girls. ‘Shannon, what are you going to do? Are you managing anyone?’ I started looking around at the state of women’s MMA and realized this is a battle I could fight. Some place I could make a difference.
“…When I look over at the female side of the sport, it’s really in disarray. In order to create depth in these divisions, to solidify in people’s minds that there is depth, you have to have an organization willing to invest the time and resources to build those divisions. There are all these catchweights, girls who fight 125 going all the way up to 145. Just to get a fight. That had to change. I thought to myself ‘Build a platform Shannon.'”
Teaming with partner Janet Martin, Knapp formed Invicta FC, a show designed to showcase female fighters in every bout from the opener to the main event. Knapp’s long experience in the sport attracted top talent for the first of what she hopes will be a handful of events this year. Her presence alone made the promotion an immediate player for women fighters who are skeptical of fly by night promoters who have burned them time after time.
“Shannon is definitely one of the reasons I am here,” rising star Liz Carmouche said. “There was a rapport built in Strikeforce and I felt comfortable with her. She’s not a promoter setting up for failure. With her extensive background, this is something that could be right there beside Strikeforce and the UFC. So I felt really comfortable signing on that dotted line.”
Headliner Marloes Coenen echoes Carmouche. She felt so confident in Knapp’s abilities that she signed an exclusive contract with Invicta for her North American fights.
“I have so much respect for her and what she’s achieved in the business. That, for me, was a big factor in my decision to sign with Invicta exclusively…I had a lot of offers, but (Shannon) was the only one who took the time to fly over to meet with me, talk with me,” Coenen said. “We spoke for two days, had a few dinners. She talked to me about anthropology, about females in the sport. This is really a step forward, to promote girls in an all-female show.”
Invicta won’t be the first promotion to attempt a card filled top to bottom with all female fighters. Former UFC announcer Jeff Osborne promoted Hook n Shoot cards over a decade ago with women packing the card. But that was a different time.
In a post-Gina Carano, post-Cyborg Santos, post-Ronda Rousey world, spectators are used to watching high-level women compete. Knapp has them in spades, including Coenen and top prospect Carmouche, who is just grateful to get another chance to compete.
“Each time I compete, there’s usually a light bulb that goes on and I go ‘Oh, right!’ We may have practiced it 20 times, but it’s when it happens in a fight that you go ‘Now I understand.’ I probably should have put my hand there so I didn’t get punched in the face. Now I know,” Carmouche said. “Getting in the cage is what helps me the most, because every time there is so much to take away. It takes me getting kicked in the face, punched in the face, for learning to occur.”
Carmouche is also signed to Strikeforce, which has given her permission to compete on the Invicta card. It’s an obvious potential pitfall for Knapp. What happens when she helps build a star, only to see Zuffa pull them back to the fold or gobble them up?
“I’m okay with that. I don’t aspire to be king of the jungle. That’s not what this has to be. That’s not what this is about for me. For me it’s about giving fighters the opportunity,” Knapp said. “Sure, build it and they will come. Absolutely.”
“I’m in the business to create dreams and opportunities. You can’t do that and also stomp on those same dreams and take big opportunities away from girls. Am I going to build girls that Strikeforce may need? Absolutely. But is Strikeforce going to have girls they aren’t using that I can use? Absolutely. If I build these weight classes and Zuffa decides they want them? That’s great for the fighters. You can have what I have. I’ll build more.”
For now, details remain sparse. A television partner hasn’t been found, although Knapp promises the first card will be widely available. In many ways, these early cards will serve as the promotion’s “pilot” episode, designed to convince potential sponsors that this is an event worth partnering with.
“I hope we can inspire women,” Coenen said. “This might be a moment in time to really push through. MMA is becoming so big, especially for the men. I think the time is right for women.”
Welcome to my new Monday feature “3 Questions,” where we take a look at the three biggest issues surrounding the upcoming week in mixed martial arts 1. What’s the deal with this mystery UFC on FX show? I was more than a little surprised yeste…
Welcome to my new Monday feature “3 Questions,” where we take a look at the three biggest issues surrounding the upcoming week in mixed martial arts
1. What’s the deal with this mystery UFC on FX show?
I was more than a little surprised yesterday when Gray Maynard vs. Clay Guida was announced as the main event for UFC on FX 4. Not because of the fight itself, because I knew for over a month that the fight would be booked at some point—we just weren’t sure when, exactly, it would happen.
I was surprised because the event was called UFC on FX 4, and there was no UFC on FX 3 event on the calendar.
A little digging allowed me to confirm with UFC officials that the June 22 show in Atlantic City that was previously believed to be UFC on FX 3 will now, in fact, be UFC on FX 4. A new FX event, currently believed to be held June 8 at an undisclosed location, will be announced shortly. And no, it will not be the Ultimate Fighter Live Finale—that’s a separate event entirely.
Will we find out more about this secret show in the days ahead? I think we will.
2. Will Bellator’s planned main event for Friday night actually happen?
Eric Prindle and Thiago Santos seem destined for catastrophe. They originally met in November, and things were going along swimmingly until Santos punted Prindle in the junk so hard that the referee actually stopped the fight. That nasty incident was followed by an even nastier one the next day when Prindle decided it would be a great idea to tweet a picture of his ruptured ball.
The rematch was booked for last Friday night, but it never happened. Why? It depends on who you believe. Bellator and everyone else involved with the fight said that Prindle fell ill and couldn’t compete. Sources close to Bellator told me that Prindle was trying to cut too much weight and became sick as a result, so the doctors stopped his cut and wouldn’t allow him to compete.
Prindle told a different story, saying that Santos was the one who tried to cut too much weight and that it was his fault the fight was scrapped.
Either way, it’s been re-scheduled for this Friday night. Given the history between these two thus far, you can expect something wacky to happen here.
3. Can Team Faber rebound on Ultimate Fighter Live?
Dominick Cruz pretty much had his way with Urijah Faber on the second episode of Ultimate Fighter Live.
The guy believed to be one of Cruz’s worst draft picks knocked out Faber’s top pick in the first round, earning control of the fight picks for Team Cruz. And then Cruz utterly punked Faber when it came to the actual fight pick for next week, surprising Faber and telling him to pick anyone they wanted to step in the cage with his top pick Justin Lawrence.
Crickets. That’s pretty much the only thing you heard as Faber looked blankly at his team while they did the same thing in return. It was an emasculating moment for the entire team, as it gave off the impression that nobody wanted to fight Lawrence. Cruz briefly let the moment linger, then selected Cristiano Marcello to face Lawrence.
This is a big fight. Lawrence and Marcello were two of the major favorites to face off in the finals, and they’re now squaring off in week three. Can Marcello help Team Faber get its mojo back?
When it comes to professional wrestling, former WWE and WCW booker Terry Taylor has pretty much seen it all.He wrestled the best of the best, including all-time greats like Ric Flair and Ted DiBiase, and he sat in a position of power in both rival c…
When it comes to professional wrestling, former WWE and WCW booker Terry Taylor has pretty much seen it all.
He wrestled the best of the best, including all-time greats like Ric Flair and Ted DiBiase, and he sat in a position of power in both rival companies (WCW and WWE) during one of the most exciting times in wrestling history.
Along the way, Taylor—who wrestled under monikers including Dr. Feelgood and the Red Rooster—had a chance to learn from the brightest booking minds in the industry. For those not hip on insider wrestling lingo, the booker is the man behind the scenes calling the shots. In other industries you might call him the director, the show runner or the head writer. Not wrestling. Wrestling has its own unique patois, a language the grunt-and-groan set can call their own.
In the old days, the booker sat in a smoke-filled room and used coded telegrams along the wire to tell the local promoters on the scene who should go over (win) and who needed to do the job (lose). When there was still the illusion of being real, these bookers would have to be very careful about what they said.
According to Marcus Griffin’s groundbreaking book Fall Guys: The Barnums of Bounce, instead of the wrestler’s name, bookers like Billy Sandow would use a nickname or the city the wrestler was from to describe him. That way if the messages fell into the wrong hands, there would be no written record of their tomfoolery:
Code names and terms were used to designate wrestlers and the results of bouts. An agent sent into a town to handle a herd of wrestlers scheduled to appear in a club might receive a wire from a Sandow booker reading:
“GLENDALE GOES THROUGH WITH LEGS STOP MITCH OVER PANAMA THIRTY MINUTES COLLISION STOP CHRIS TOPS DODGE CITY FORTY MINUTES DOCTOR PINS KANGAROO THIRTY AND TIGER UNDER TOOTS.”
Sounds confusing, doesn’t it? Well, the man in charge of the wrestlers knew its meaning. Deciphered it read: “Ray Steele wrestles draw with Fred Grubmier. Rudy Dusek beats Dick Daviscourt, by knocking his head against Daviscourt’s, both falling out of the ring. Dusek returning before the referee can count 10. Jim Londos to beat Joe Stecher in forty minutes, Doctor Karl Sarpolis to beat Tom Alley in thirty minutes and Bill Nelson to be pinned by Toots Mondt as suits Mondt’s inclination.”
Bookers like Sandow and Jack Curley controlled nationwide empires in the days before the boob tube. By the time grapplers owned the new television medium, Fred Kohler ruled the roost thanks to his control of wrestling on the old DuMont Network.
Fast forward to Taylor’s day, and the wrestling masterminds were men like Jerry Jarrett, Bill Watts, Vince McMahon and even WCW’s Eric Bischoff.
Taylor worked with them all, soaking in knowledge like a sponge. But it was Bill Dundee in the Mid South territory who taught Taylor the basics of the booker’s business, spewing knowledge on long car trips throughout Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.
“Bill Dundee was brilliant at that crowd psychology. At crowd manipulation,” Taylor told Bleacher Report in an exclusive interview. “When Dundee rode in the car with us, he was working on the finishes for every match on the three- or four-hour trips. I got to hear him talking about the nuts and bolts of the actual finishes, how it would work and what would come next. And how the people would react. He knew exactly how the people would respond.”
Mid South exploded under Dundee, with headliners like the Rock and Roll Express, Junkyard Dog and Jim Cornette’s Midnight Express leading the territory to creative and business heights. Taylor took the lessons he learned in Mid South during one of the hottest runs in wrestling history with him as he and his peers took the creative reigns in WCW during the promotion’s late 1990s glory years.
Dundee had worked closely with Mid South owner Bill Watts to create the overall direction of the company. Teamwork was key for WCW’s biggest successes as well, especially the development of one of the decade’s biggest stars.
“The idea of calling (former WCW superstar Bill) Goldberg by his last name only was my idea. It came from watching Silence of the Lambs and the idea that calling someone by their first name made them more human. And we didn’t want Goldberg to seem human,” Taylor said.
“It was Kevin Sullivan’s idea for him not to talk on interviews. It was Mike Tenay’s idea to give him a winning streak. All these different factors together—plus Bill Goldberg being a 6’3″, 290-pound, intense, physical being who looks like he could kill somebody—people bought it.”
Today, the wrestling business is struggling at the box office. The WWE’s pay-per-view business has fallen to modern lows and TNA is hanging on for dear life. Ultimately, there is no magic solution to solve all of wrestling problems.
The best bookers aren’t beholden to any set formula. It’s an art, every bit as much as it’s a science. Taylor can’t promise success, especially in today’s fractured media landscape, where grabbing an audience is half the challenge, holding them enthralled the rest.
“With 500 channels, it’s hard just to have two guys in there beating on each other,” Taylor says. “There has to be a compelling story behind it. It sounds simple, but the booker has to figure out what would make someone interested in this. The creative part is painting a picture, creating a scenario that compels people to watch. And honestly, the UFC is doing a great job of it.
“They get personal rivalries, they get good physical matchups, they have all these human-interest stories. They magnify them, then put the two talents in a physical confrontation in a cage. It’s the same thing wrestling used to do.”
Taylor may be out of the business, but wrestling is never far from his thoughts. He recently gave fans a sneak peak into the mind of the booker as part of an innovative DVD series from Kayfabe Commentaries.
Taylor was given the opportunity to re-evaluate Jim Crockett Promotion’s 1987 purchase of Mid South (by then called the Universal Wrestling Federation) from Watts. It’s an unprecedented chance for fans to get a good feel for how some of wrestling’s top creative talents view the business and how they go about creating the stories that end up on Raw, Smackdown or TNA’s Impact.
“If people want to see the ‘might have, could have, should have’ they can buy the DVD and reminisce about how good it was in the 1980s and look at what might have been,” Taylor said. “And they can go through the booking process with us and see how angles are developed, how marriages of talent occur and why.”
At the time, the UWF wrestlers were seemingly forgotten, extra toys for booker Dusty Rhodes who already had an extremely full toy box. Although Taylor is careful not to criticize Rhodes or the Jim Crockett brass, he does have some interesting ideas for how the UWF invasion might have gone.
“There’s three sides to every story. Yours, mine and the truth,” Taylor said. “It depends on where you were standing. Big Bubba may have said (the UWF purchase) was the greatest thing that ever happened. He got put in the top mix and he stayed there. I just know that the guys who weren’t the main-event guys, we did unification matches and got beat. And that was the end of it. It’s their company, they can do what they want. But with 20/20 hindsight, from my point of view, there were more compelling things we could have done.”
Some of Taylor’s ideas here are breathtaking, grand in scope, while also maintaining an elegant simplicity. Without giving away too much, he has wrestlers literally fighting for their professional lives in a storyline that would have been groundbreaking in 1987 and would still be thrilling if applied today.
In the end, the same basic principles apply no matter how they are packaged on television. The name of the game is getting the audience to come back for more. And though it seems counterintuitive, Taylor believes to do that, you have to make them mad:
“When your territory needs a shot in the arm, conventional booking is to get heat. Make the people so mad that they’ll come back to see somebody get righteous. Thwarting evil is what people want to see. But if they see it every week, then there’s no need to keep coming back.
“It’s a very delicate balance to keep people on the edge of their seat, without giving them so much heat that they get disgusted and give up on the babyface ever coming out on top. That’s why good bookers are so few and far between.”
It’s classic advice, but Taylor shows he understands how it applies in 2012, not just how they did it in his 1980s prime.
Jonathan Snowden is the author of Total MMA and The MMA Encyclopedia. His upcoming book Shooters: The Toughest Men in Professional Wrestling, will hit the shelves in June. He’s a regular contributor to Bleacher Report.
Tito Ortiz is getting his wish for one more UFC fight. He’s even getting his own hand-selected opponent, as the UFC confirmed this morning that the 