BJ Penn has taken to Twitter (possibly for some of that Zuffa incentive cash) to call out Jake Shields. Guess, (just like the rest of us) even Penn isn’t interested in that Jon Fitch rematch..
BJ Penn has taken to Twitter (possibly for some of that Zuffa incentive cash) to call out Jake Shields. Guess, (just like the rest of us) even Penn isn’t interested in that Jon Fitch rematch.
Penn tweeted to Shields:
I would never challenge one of Cesar Gracie’s guys, but you’ve been calling me out for years.Let’s do it! I’ll contact Dana
Shields responded with the following tweets:
I’m a BJ fan but let’s get it on. Make the call
even better, let’s make it the first 5 round non-title fight
I used to be a big fan of UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) reality TV show. The first few seasons were captivating and interesting. The TUF series made stars out of fighters such as Forrest Griffin, Michael Bisping, Rashad Evans, Josh Koscheck and …
I used to be a big fan of UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) reality TV show. The first few seasons were captivating and interesting. The TUF series made stars out of fighters such as Forrest Griffin, Michael Bisping, Rashad Evans, Josh Koscheck and Chris Leben.
Unfortunately, the show has gone stale and there is no reason to watch it anymore. TUF 13, which is on SPIKE TV every Wednesday night, has had very low ratings.
Fans are tired of seeing boring fighters and fights on the show and the coaches this season (Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos) are not creating enough drama to warrant viewership.
The UFC thought that having Lesnar on TUF 13 would spike up the ratings, but this hasn’t been the case.
Maybe it is because Lesnar isn’t the heavyweight champion anymore or maybe it is because Lesnar is calmer and more mellow than before.
Casual MMA fans don’t know who Dos Santos is, even though he is one of the best heavyweights in the world. Lesnar and Dos Santos have been cordial to each other in the episodes, and there is no tension between them.
Fans used to flock to their TV sets to watch Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz go at each other verbally every week on TUF 3. Rashad Evans and Quinton Jackson as coaches on TUF 10 helped ratings too, as well as having street fighter Kimbo Slice on the show.
The smart fans are sick and tired of the UFC and SPIKE TV hyping up the episodes and not delivering. Who can forget the weekly previews that implied Kimbo would fight again on TUF 10 even though he lost and was out of the competition already?
How about the time when Dana White kept on saying that one of the fighters on the show (Phillipe Nover) was going to be the next Anderson Silva? Nover isn’t even in the UFC anymore after getting cut.
I can’t even name one of the fighters on TUF 13. I do know who Lew Polley is since I saw an episode where Polley (Dos Santos’ wrestling coach) was riding the guys too hard in practice.
None of the fighters stand out, and I don’t think there is a future UFC champion on TUF 13.
WWE’s Tough Enough reality show is way more interesting than TUF 13 thanks to the charismatic Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin has more charisma than all the TUF 13 coaches and fighters combined.
It doesn’t really matter who the coaches will be on TUF 14 because the show is getting old and boring. The best option might be to have Evans and Jon Jones as coaches and bring in better fighters and personalities to compete.
If Evans and Jones are not available, I think I would rather see Miesha Tate and Gina Carano as coaches than any of the male fighters on the Zuffa roster.
SPIKE TV and the UFC need to revamp the show quickly and change it up if they want more viewers.
Any time two heavyweights with a history of testing positive get into a bi-lingual war of words, you can book us for a ringside seat. Such was the case this week when Josh Barnett and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva launched into the now nearly obligatory online fighter beef session. Silva got the ball rolling during an interview with Sherdog, wherein (apparently apropos of nothing) he lashed out at Barnett for – among other things – ignoring Brazilian fighters on elevators. So … that was weird.
If we had to guess, we’d say Bigfoot is feeling a little lonely and cranky after being kind of overlooked in all the hype, speculation and gratuitous match-up fantasizing that’s gone on since the UFC-Strikeforce merger. After all, Bigfoot became the latest dude to slay the unslayable Fedor Emelianenko back in February. You’d think that was worth something, right? And then pictures of Barnett exchanging bro-grabs with Dana White show up on the Internet? Why, that’d be enough to set any giant’s blood to a boilin’. His attacks, along with Barnett’s response are after the jump.
(Hell in the ring, silent on elevators.)
Any time two heavyweights with a history of testing positive get into a bi-lingual war of words, you can book us for a ringside seat. Such was the case this week when Josh Barnett and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva launched into the now nearly obligatory online fighter beef session. Silva got the ball rolling during an interview with Sherdog, wherein (apparently apropos of nothing) he lashed out at Barnett for – among other things – ignoring Brazilian fighters on elevators. So … that was weird.
If we had to guess, we’d say Bigfoot is feeling a little lonely and cranky after being kind of overlooked in all the hype, speculation and gratuitous match-up fantasizing that’s gone on since the UFC-Strikeforce merger. After all, Bigfoot became the latest dude to slay the unslayable Fedor Emelianenko back in February. You’d think that was worth something, right? And then pictures of Barnett exchanging bro-grabs with Dana White show up on the Internet? Why, that’d be enough to set any giant’s blood to a boilin’. His attacks, along with Barnett’s response are after the jump.
“I’ve been fighting since 2004 and have never had any issues with another athlete, even the most stuck-up,” Silva told the Dog. “Friendship, for me, is everything, but Josh is a weird guy, a guy who doesn’t greet you when you enter the elevator, doesn’t even say ‘good morning.’ It’s how he treats Brazilian fighters especially. It’s the same thing with (Barnett and) Werdum …
“But when (Barnett) sees Fedor, Dana White or (Lorenzo) Fertitta, he runs to them and stays by their side all the time. He makes me sick. He’s the classic kiss-ass, a rude man … I really want to face Barnett and I’ve already said I consider him a filthy person, even though he is a great fighter, and that I’ll beat him up and close both of his eyes.”
Let’s just say for the record, if Barnett has been trying to be a kiss-ass, he’s been doing a pretty shitty job of it for the last, oh, nine years or so. More than a brownnoser, we’d describe Barnett as straight-up apathetic about his MMA career more often than not. Still, the silver-tongued Americano isn’t going to take this lying down. He quickly issued a retort via Twitter, simultaneously looking to defend himself and shore up his street cred on the Brazilian tip:
“Bigfoot sure has a lot of shit to talk it would seem,” he tweeted, “(He) thinks I got beef w/ Brazil. Go ask Babalu, Rizzo, Vitor, Feijao, Romulo, JZ (about that) …”
Yeah, not sure what Silva was looking to accomplish here, except to bait Barnett into a semi-high-profile grudge match. Unfortunately, both guys are on opposite sides of the mythical Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix (they’re still doing that, right?). So, assuming that tournament is not scrapped somewhere down the road by Our Octagon Overlords, the only way said grudge match would happen would be in the final.
Whereas other major sporting promotions are denouncing the utilization of social media, specifically Twitter, by its athletes, the UFC is encouraging their fighters to tweet.Understanding the exponential benefits of Twitter and Facebook, UFC president…
Whereas other major sporting promotions are denouncing the utilization of social media, specifically Twitter, by its athletes, the UFC is encouraging their fighters to tweet.
Understanding the exponential benefits of Twitter and Facebook, UFC president Dana White has created the first social media-based incentive program for fighters.
The NFL and NBA are well-known for fining their players up to $20,000 for violating social media policies during games.
On the other hand, the UFC is embracing the far-reaching grasp that social media has in this world and will be compensating its fighters with up to $240,000 annually.
The allotted money will be dispersed as quarterly bonuses to those fighters who make the most impact through their Twitter accounts.
News of this program was released at the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas at the UFC summit where more than 300 fighters were required to go through “Digital Royalty University social media training.”
The vision of the UFC is to allow its stable of fighters to create more interaction with their fans on a personal level through the use of Twitter.
This personal engagement between fighter and fan will strengthen the bond that is vital to the success of mixed martial arts in this country. There is no denying that without the fans, ultimate fighting does not exist.
Starting June 1, Stikeforce and UFC fighters will be divided into four groups depending on their number of Twitter followers.
From these groups, three winners will be determined based on the most followers gained, highest percentage of followers gained and most creative campaign.
Each winner will be awarded $5,000 for his effort.
Dana White, a social media aficionado himself, understands the value of Twitter and the personal relationship that is awarded between the fighters and their followers in only 140 characters.
Only time will tell if the other major sporting promotions follow suit with the UFC and embrace the worldwide grasp that social media creates.
I welcome your comments.
Todd Seyler “Like” me on Facebook Follow me on Twitter @magnus06
According to MMA Weekly, the pending super-fight between “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko versus “Hollywood” Dan Henderson is almost a done deal.Sources close to Emelianenko’s management at M-1 Global have stated that this epic matchup will take pl…
According to MMA Weekly, the pending super-fight between “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko versus “Hollywood” Dan Henderson is almost a done deal.
Sources close to Emelianenko’s management at M-1 Global have stated that this epic matchup will take place on July 30th at the Hoffman Estates in Illinois.
With final negotiations still on the table, a catch-weight of 220 pounds for the two mixed martial arts veterans seems to be in place.
Bringing his prolific 31-3 overall MMA record to the cage, Emelianenko will be looking to bounce back from his only two defeats inside the Octagon.
Across the cage, Dan Henderson sports an amazing 27-8 MMA record and currently wears the Strikeforce light heavyweight championship crown.
Due to the catch-weight of 220 pounds, Henderson’s title will not be awarded to the victor.
Additionally, this fight will be co-promoted by M-1 Global and Strikeforce and therefore will air on Showtime, possibly on pay-per-view, however.
With details still needing to be ironed out, the fight itself seems to be imminent.
An additional note, this fight between two of ultimate fighting’s best ever will be the last contracted fight for Dan Henderson within Strikeforce.
He will technically be a free agent at the conclusion of his battle with Emelianenko.
With a tumultuous relationship with Dana White ever-present, it is not a guarantee that Henderson will be signed to the UFC roster at the conclusion of this fight.
One final mention, Vegas odds-makers have awarded Fedor Emelianenko a slight favorite (-280) over Dan Henderson (+210).
Regardless of the promotion or the future of either fighter, this clash of hall-of-fame fighters should be memorable for years to come.
With the last chapter of his life and his career behind him, the 28-year-old who overcame a highly publicized battle with painkiller abuse and anxiety is hoping that the headlines about his personal and professional struggles the past three years will eventually become footnotes in his life story rather than the main subject.
“When I put my life story out about all of the sh*t I’ve been through and everything that’s happened to me, even my parents will be like, ‘Oh my God,’ when they read it. They don’t even know the half of it.”
Page one of the new chapter of Parisyan’s story starts Thursday night in London, Ontario when he squares off with highly regarded Canadian welterweight Ryan Ford at MMA Live 1 and he says the main difference this time around is that he’s writing the story for himself and not for others like he’s been doing his whole life.
“I’ve been through hell and I’m still on the way back home. I hope people can understand and not judge me for the mistakes I made. I’m doing this for myself. I’m tired of worrying about this person or that person. My family always has my back, but I need to look after myself. I want to get out there and do this for me so I can feel good about myself again. I used to think a lot about what everybody thought about me and now I don’t care. I’ve been training since I was eight years old and competing as long as I can remember and I got burnt out,” Parisyan recalls. “I let the pressure get to me. I had the pressure of representing my friends, my family, Armenians, judo etc…etc. What I realize now is that except your age, what goes up must come down, so you need to not let every little thing get to you because that’s when the pressure will eat at you until you break.”
(Parisyan says although his demons are behind him, they’ll always be chasing him. PicProps: Sherdog)
With the last chapter of his life and his career behind him, the 28-year-old who overcame a highly publicized battle with painkiller abuse and anxiety is hoping that the headlines about his personal and professional struggles the past three years will eventually become footnotes in his life story rather than the main subject.
“When I put my life story out about all of the sh*t I’ve been through and everything that’s happened to me, even my parents will be like, ‘Oh my God,’ when they read it. They don’t even know the half of it.”
Page one of the new chapter of Parisyan’s story starts Thursday night in London, Ontario when he squares off with highly regarded Canadian welterweight Ryan Ford at MMA Live 1 and he says the main difference this time around is that he’s writing the story for himself and not for others like he’s been doing his whole life.
“I’ve been through hell and I’m still on the way back home. I hope people can understand and not judge me for the mistakes I made. I’m doing this for myself. I’m tired of worrying about this person or that person. My family always has my back, but I need to look after myself. I want to get out there and do this for me so I can feel good about myself again. I used to think a lot about what everybody thought about me and now I don’t care. I’ve been training since I was eight years old and competing as long as I can remember and I got burnt out,” Parisyan recalls. “I let the pressure get to me. I had the pressure of representing my friends, my family, Armenians, judo etc…etc. What I realize now is that except your age, what goes up must come down, so you need to not let every little thing get to you because that’s when the pressure will eat at you until you break.”
Parisyan now believes that it was that pressure, coupled with the drugs that amplified and maybe even caused the anxiety, which he now says is under control.
As the sole financial support for several of his family members, if he didn’t perform and get paid, it didn’t just affect him, it affected everyone he cared about. When he was suspended and fined $32,000 for testing positive for painkillers following his UFC 94 win over Dong Hyun Kim, the financial hit he took only added to the pressure.
“I only made $6000 for my last fight after I paid the commission for my outstanding fine. That’s not enough money to support myself, let alone my family. It baffled me how I got a $32,000 fine and nine-month suspension when some of these guys popped for using steroids got six months and $12,000, but I did my time and I paid for my crime. Let’s move on,” he says. “I didn’t make the conscious decision to get anxiety or to become reliant on painkillers. It happened and I got through it and I’m working to get back to where I used to be and that’s all I can do.”
The toughest lesson Parisyan says he learned from this personal struggle was that many of the people close to him, whom he believed would be part of his support system through thick and through thin, when push came to shove weren’t who he thought they were.
“I screwed up and I have nobody to blame but myself. Sure I could blame a lot of people for what happened, but I’m not going to because I learned a lot through all of this. Nobody gave me a hand when I needed it the most. If you can’t help me up, fine, but don’t kick me down more than I already am. There are people who helped me out and they know who they are and I love them to death, but most of the people who I called my friends and family who were all around me when I was doing well, as soon as I fell, they were nowhere to be found,” Parisyan points out. “Nobody gave a sh*t, nobody wanted to give a sh*t, nobody called, nobody visited, and nobody said anything. For the record, f*ck all of them. They know who they are, from friends to cousins to certain family members, f*ck them – all of them.”
Although it was tough to come to grips with, Parisyan says that looking back on the situation, that moment of clarity when he realized that the people he surrounded himself with weren’t in it for the long haul with him was the main impetus for him getting started on the road to recovery.
“People need people. They need their friends, blood and family members to support them when they’re going through problems in their lives. When I walk into the cage, nobody walks in there with me. I’m on my own. No one is helping me out in there. A lot of people help me get ready outside the cage and I appreciate it and I love them for it and I’ll repay them any way I can,” Karo says. “But when I’m locked in the cage it’s only me in there and I’m putting my whole life on the line, so I have to worry about pleasing myself and not everybody else. It’s the same thing with life. I’m fighting for me now. That’s how it should have always been, but it wasn’t.”
For the record, Parisyan wants to be clear that when he started taking the painkillers which were prescribed by his doctor for a serious hamstring tear he suffered nearly four years ago, he could barely get out of bed without them, let alone train. A dent on the back of his thigh is a reminder of the severity of the injury that eventually healed up enough to allow him to stop taking the medication. When a freak training accident forced him out of his UFC 88 bout on the eve of the fight with Yoshiyuki Yoshida and he was put back on the pills, so began his humiliating slide down the slippery slope into addiction, anxiety and exile from the UFC. He says that he didn’t take pills recreationally, but explains that he became reliant on them to numb the pain enough to allow him to train and and that the side effect of such longterm use became a dependancy.
Ready to make penance for his past transgressions, Karo says he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get back to the UFC and that he doesn’t expect any favors considering how things played out with his last few fights in the Octagon.
“It’s been such a long road and people don’t realize and will never know just how big some of the bumps were. You have to crawl before you walk and walk before you run. I was running and now I’m back to crawling. I’m in a very, very deep hole and I’m crawling out slowly but surely. I’m doing what I need to do. It’s going to be a long road. Even if, God forbid, I walk out of the cage or ring with a loss, I want people to say, ‘Karo is back, he’s looking good, we can expect more from him and he’s far from done.’ At the very least, that’s what I want people to say about me,” he says. “I used to pray to God asking him to give me a chance. God gave me a chance and I screwed them up. Now I pray to God and ask him to forgive me for my sins and I tell him I’ll do the rest. The UFC gave me a few chances and I screwed it up. It is what it is. I talked to Joe Silva and I told him that I know last time I kept on asking him to give me a chance because I needed to come back without having fought outside the UFC at all. This time I told him I don’t want them to do me any favors. I’ll fight my way back to the UFC because that’s where I belong. I’ll fight my way back. I don’t need a handout from anybody. I’ll prove myself and I’ll beat whoever it takes to make it back there. I’ve made a pact with myself to keep fighting – and believe me, I thought about packing it in. I’m going to keep my mouth shut, train hard and give the fans what they deserve and what they expect from me.”
If his notable differences in demeanor and attitude when speaking of his upcoming fight and opponent are any indication that “The Heat” is following through with the pact he says he made with himself, it’s a good sign that he’s on the right path.
“I want to thank Ryan Ford for taking the fight because he was the only guy they offered it to who would take the fight. I have a lot of respect for him already because he isn’t afraid to get in there with a guy with a lot more experience. I don’t know how this fight will go. I’ll never make a prediction again because anything can happen and it’s bitten me in the ass every time I talk big,” he explains humbly. “I will tell you that I pray and I train every day and I hope the outcome is good. I will bring the fight to Ryan Ford and try to win this fight any and every way I can. That’s what I’m going to do. I will never go out to a fight and have people say I look ill or look stupid ever again. I want to do this for me. I’m in a much better place than I’ve been for a long, long time. I’ve been at the top of the ladder and I’ve been at the bottom of the ladder. Whatever I have to do to get back up to the next rung and then the next rung, I’ll do.”
Cognizant that as he gets a grip and a foothold on the subsequent rungs on the ladder out of the hole he dug for himself, he will be met with more and more resistance from his opponents, fans and the media, Parisyan says he’s up for the challenge and says that this time around things will be decidedly different than the last.
“Of course everyone is going to say they’ve heard me say the same thing before about how I’m better and I’m back to my old self, but this time I’m going to let my performance prove it, not my words. I had no business coming back to the UFC when I did because I wasn’t ready. I needed the money and I fooled everyone, including myself, into believing I was through my problems. If I was set financially, I would have stepped away from fighting for six months or a year and gotten better physically and mentally before taking another fight, but I couldn’t afford the time off,” he admits. “I forced myself to take the last six months off, even though I’m in such a huge amount of debt, because I needed to do it for me. I was offered dozens of fights, but I turned them all down until I knew I was ready. People are going to have their minds made up about me and think they know what’s going on in my head or in my life, when they have no idea. That’s the way reporters and even fans work sometimes. They get something in their heads and you have to work the rest of your life to prove them wrong. There’s only so much you can do. People believe what they want to about you, so I’m going to worry about what I can control and that’s me and my performance in the cage.”
He points out that this isn’t the first time people claiming to know who is and what he’s about were wrong about him.
“It’s nothing new. Everyone made such a big deal about my appearance on The Ultimate Fighter when I asked Nate Diaz, ‘Do you know who I am?’ I didn’t mean that I was some big shot fighter like everybody assumes that I meant. Everybody in that room knew I was a fighter and Nate knew me because I fought his brother, Nick. I meant that he doesn’t know me outside of fighting – outside of MMA. He didn’t know my background. I meant, ‘Don’t get all gangster on me because it isn’t going to work.’ That might intimidate some people, but there isn’t anything anyone can say or do that will rattle me,” he explains. “I come from Armenia, Russia, Eastern Europe, and over there guys don’t argue with their fists, it’s with knives and guns and bullets. There are armies and wars. It’s very bad. I’m not some guy from his neighborhood who he can intimidate by getting in my face and trying to bully me. I’ve seen people burned alive inside of tires – and I was just a kid when I saw that kind of stuff. People picked up on that one sentence and they assumed that I was acting all high and mighty, but that’s not how I meant it. I meant that I wasn’t buying his tough guy bullsh*t.”
Although he isn’t making many guarantees these days, one promise Parisyan makes is that he’ll never come into a bout unprepared like he did in his last fight with Dennis Hallman.
“I fought those demons and I’ve beaten them to a certain point and I’ll always have to fight them to some degree. I’m training. I feel a hundred times better. I look better. I wouldn’t have taken this fight if I didn’t think I was prepared for it. I did that in my last fight and look where it got me. I will never do that again. That was not me in the cage. Dennis Hallman called me after that fight to tell me he would give me a rematch whenever we were both healthy because he knew what I was going through because he had been through the same thing and he knew that wasn’t the real Karo he fought in the cage that night. That meant a lot to me,” he admits. “Ryan Ford is not an easy opponent. He’s a strong, tough guy who has been fighting for a while and has beaten some good opponents. I could have taken an easier fight, but I don’t want to take a fight with an easy opponent. He’s won championships and he’s no pushover. At the end of the day it’s business. When I walk in the cage I’m going to go after Ryan and I will do whatever I can to beat him.”
