While the speculation surrounding a superfight between Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre continues to grow, Japanese star Yushin Okami looks to spoil that opportunity, as he will challenge the Brazilian for the UFC middleweight title at UFC Rio this…
While the speculation surrounding a superfight between Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre continues to grow, Japanese star Yushin Okami looks to spoil that opportunity, as he will challenge the Brazilian for the UFC middleweight title at UFC Rio this summer.
The recent announcement of Okami and Silva became somewhat of a surprise to most mixed martial arts fans, as UFC president Dana White stated previously that Silva and St-Pierre would meet if both champions were to defeat their opponents, which they did, having essentially cleaned out their respective divisions.
But for now, it appears the UFC boss has other plans.
And for Okami, he seems quite content with being booked against Silva, who, after winning 10 of his last 12 UFC bouts, is ready to get his shot at the title.
“My opponent is the champion Anderson, the fight is in Brazil, and I am the challenger. I’d say that the table has been set,” he said to MMAFighting.com.
Okami has been eagerly awaiting a rematch with the champion ever since his debut in the UFC five years prior. In January, 2006, Okami was awarded the victory via disqualification after Silva landed an illegal kick that left the Japanese star unconscious and unable to continue.
While Okami said he believes Silva’s kick was not intentional, Silva has held a grudge against Okami and he publicly stated his opponent was able to continue the bout, but chose not to.
As a result, Okami is the last man to technically defeat Silva. And regarding Silva’s bad blood towards him, Okami said he could care less about what the Brazilian thinks of him.
“It doesn’t matter what he thinks,” he said. “All I think about is defeating Anderson.”
Okami has evolved since his first bout with Silva and has been paying close attention to the Brazilian’s recent performances, vowing that he will not be able to toy with him like he has done to past opponents.
“I will guarantee that he will not be bored when fighting me,” Okami said.
Although this won’t be their first encounter against one another, it will be the first time Silva defends his middleweight title in his homeland of Brazil, a difficult task Okami must overcome in order to beat the champion again.
Meanwhile, Silva, who will be defending his title for a unprecedented ninth time, is arguably the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighter and will look to exact revenge on Okami.
But Okami said he will not let the champion’s home-field advantage nor his mystique overwhelm him.
“He’s got an aura that intimidates any opponent,” he said. “I’m going to take that aura away from him.”
Tourism in Ontario has definitely taken a bit of a beating over the past decade . What with 9/11, SARS, the Avian bird flu and Justin Bieber, the list for keeping tourists out of Ontario was just getting longer and uglier by the day. But that all …
Tourism in Ontario has definitely taken a bit of a beating over the past decade. What with 9/11, SARS, the Avian bird flu and Justin Bieber, the list for keeping tourists out of Ontario was just getting longer and uglier by the day.
But that all ended this past weekend, when a little company, better known as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), put on a spectacular show at the Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto, providing one of the most exciting live sporting events Canadian fight fans have ever seen.
Apparently, even from the nosebleed section…
James: Hey Pat, how did you enjoy the fights at UFC 129?
Pat: James, they were amazing! I was way the f#%k up there…really! Second-last row from the back. Talk about nose bleeds! I needed oxygen climbing those steps! I must be turning into an old fat bastard!! LMAO, was worth it! Next time, better seats!
James: No problems enjoying the action from up there?
Pat: Nope, none whatsoever. The energy was freeeeeeeaking amazing!
James: Good to know. Sure beats paying $10,000 on eBay for floor seats.
[Sad, but true.]
Aside from putting on a great show this past weekend, the UFC is also predicted to have brought in anywhere in the neighbourhood (spelled the proper Canadian way with the extra “u”) of 30 to 40 million dollars of additional revenue into the province, making Toronto the No. 1 MMA market in the entire world.
The fast-moving mixed martial arts world offers fighters, fans and media no shortage of talking points every month. Like every other major sport, there’s plenty for the optimists and cynics to take away. Here’s a look at the good, the bad a…
The fast-moving mixed martial arts world offers fighters, fans and media no shortage of talking points every month. Like every other major sport, there’s plenty for the optimists and cynics to take away. Here’s a look at the good, the bad and the ugly for April 2011.
The Good
Little Guy Gold
April 30 will be remembered for UFC 129, a landmark UFC from the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada. The record-breaking attendance (55,724) and live-gate ($12.075 million) coupled with all fights being broadcast for the first time ever is an important milestones considering the sport’s origins as a blacked-out product that was hemorrhaging money.
Setting a precedent for successful stadium shows will surely propel the UFC and MMA forward just like the UFC Primetime hype series quietly finding its way on to ESPN 2. But the real victory of UFC 129 was the inaugural 145-pound title clash between champion Jose Aldo and Mark Hominick.
The first sub-155-pound title bout in UFC history delivered a Fight of the Night performance that outshined the headlining welterweight title tilt between Georges St-Pierre and Jake Shields. Aldo and Hominick were a difficult act to follow with their highly competitive bout, proving 2011 has seen (and announced) significantly stronger cards thanks to the arrival of featherweight and bantamweight divisions from the UFC’s sister promotion, the WEC.
Twenty-five tireless minutes pushed the champion to the limits as Hominick lived up to “The Machine” moniker, battling through an unsightly hematoma and the judges score cards for a valiant fifth-round comeback that put Aldo in danger.
With the UFC’s first sub-155-pound main event slated for UFC 132 on July 2 between UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber, Aldo and Hominick’s co-main event scrap on the biggest UFC card set a high standard for any division. As the Octagon permeates mainstream sporting culture, the full-throttle fighting of lighter weight competitors—and the international markets like Mexico, Japan and China that can bring—will only accelerate the UFC’s upward trajectory.
Cross Promotion Possibilities
On April 9, Strikeforce Lightweight Gilbert Melendez and Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz successfully defended their belts with emphatic first-round finishes. The performances took on a life of their own because talk surrounding Strikeforce-UFC title versus title bouts was at an all-time high since UFC President Dana White was cageside, scouting the new talent available to him through Zuffa’s acquisition of the San Jose-based promotion.
Diaz’s name polluted post-UFC 129 talk as the next opponent for Georges St-Pierre in a champion versus champion welterweight super-fight. Melendez will be compared to the winner of UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard’s third contest as the UFC’s top 155-pounder later this month.
Alistair Overeem versus Cain Velasquez at heavyweight and now, mutual interest expressed in the media between UFC 205-pound kingpin Jon Jones and his Strikeforce counterpart Dan Henderson are dream fights driving the conversation in the MMA world.
The UFC featured champion versus champion bouts when Dan Henderson, a two-division PRIDE titleholder, returned to the UFC in late 2007–early 2008, but PRIDE had two other high-demand champions—Fedor Emelianenko and Takanori Gomi—that never challenged the UFC’s divisional kingpins.
Champion versus champion bouts in MMA have failed to materialize more often than not despite constant clamoring for them over the last decade due to lack of cross promotion. Expect the performances of champions in either promotion to continue drumming up the war cry from fans to seize this rare opportunity as the UFC’s monopolization of the elite talent in MMA phases out the need for such demand.
The Bad
Judging
This category can find its way onto this list every month, but April was a particularly unkind calendar on the scorecards.
Bellator Featherweight Champion Joe Warren’s Greco-Roman takedowns found him reversed before his non-title clash with Andre Galvao hit the mat on April 16. On the ground, Galvao’s jiu-jitsu dragged Warren through disadvantageous positions that were disregarded by judge Chuck Wolf when he gave Warren the round. The intricacies of jiu-jitsu were not the only point missed by Wolf as Galvao damaged Warren with knees in the second frame while thwarting all but one takedown attempt—again, the round went to Warren.
Real judging criteria would account for more than forward motion and takedowns, but unfortunately, fighters and fans are burdened with 30-27 scores that miss more than one point of what criteria should determine the outcome of an MMA fight.
Gegard Mousasi’s undeserved draw with Keith Jardine kept the former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion from another win the week prior to Warren’s disputed (albeit not undeserved) decision. Mousasi should have emerged victorious on April 9, yet he walked away wondering, like so many other fighters have, why judges exist if they can’t make sound judgments.
It may be just another fight for judges randomly assigned by state athletic commissions, but it’s more than that to the fighters—it’s their career, and livelihood, and should be treated with that respect by those shaping its decisions.
Full Tilt Poker Shut Down
Bottom line: Anytime a major sponsor is cut out of MMA, fighters lose a much-needed revenue source.
The Ugly
The best way to dismiss concerns related to accepting a short notice bout is to make it short. On 17 days notice, UFC welterweight Jake Ellenberger agreed to meet Sean Pierson at UFC 129. A short, thudding left hook-straight right combo left Pierson defeated on the canvas—the only Canadian on the card to be knocked out in front of his home countrymen.
Danny Acosta is the lead writer at FIGHT! Magazine. Follow him on twitter.com/acostaislegend
UFC featherweight Mark Hominick was on The Fan 590 RadioMonday morning where he spoke with host Andrew Krystal about his gutsy fight at UFC 129 against Jose Aldo this past weekend.
According to “The Machine,” who says the gruesome hematoma he incurred during the bout was “merely a flesh wound,” the UFC brass were so impressed with his performance Saturday night that they have assured him that if he can put together a couple more wins, he’ll get another crack at the the promotion’s 145-pound strap.
Check out what Hominick had to say after the jump.
(“Hey you guys!!! Can I get a Baby Ruth?”)
UFC featherweight Mark Hominick was on The Fan 590 RadioMonday morning where he spoke with host Andrew Krystal about his gutsy fight at UFC 129 against Jose Aldo this past weekend.
According to “The Machine,” who says the gruesome hematoma he incurred during the bout was “merely a flesh wound,” the UFC brass were so impressed with his performance Saturday night that they have assured him that if he can put together a couple more wins, he’ll get another crack at the the promotion’s 145-pound strap.
Here’s what Hominick had to say about:
His disgusting hematoma:
“It was superficial. It looked a lot worse than it was, you know? I’ve got pair of black eyes but the swelling is down and it looked a lot worse than it was in the fight. I’m trying to avoid [seeing] some of [the photos from the fight]. Like I said, it was superficial and those hematomas…that’s just what happens in a fight. There’s swelling there and there’s nowhere for the swelling to go because you’re not cut or anything, so it just stockpiles there. I went to the hospital, got a CAT scan, everything was there, made sure nothing was broken, and nothing was broken and the CAT scan was completely fine. I put some ice on it and within two hours the swelling was gone. Both eyes are black and blue. A little swelling in the face but nothing serious. I’m wearing sunglasses and I can hide under them.”
Whether or not he thinks he was close to finishing the dominant champion:
“I think at the four minute mark he was waiting for that bell to ring. That’s just it. I was giving everything I had in my effort to finish the fight because I knew I was down. Besides the knockdown I believe it was pretty close throughout the fight. He just had heavy hands and any time he landed a clean punch he did damage and I think that was the difference in the fight. I hurt him early. A lot of people were talking about he was getting tired, he was tired I think because I hit him in the body. Even in the first round I hit him with a couple hard liver shots. That’s like my patented punch and I always attack the body on everybody. It takes your will to fight and I think that’s why he changed up the game plan and took me to the mat. It was a war and we got fight of the night for a reason. He did a lot of damage but like I said I inflicted a lot of damage on him and almost got the finish in the fifth round. Every couple of shots I landed a hard shot and I could just see it in his eyes. As much as he’s a champion and he wants to go out swinging, he was wanting that bell to ring. There’s no question. He was in there in survival mode as opposed to defending and attacking. He thought he had the fight in the bag at that point, so I think he was just trying to survive that last round.”
How many tickets he was asked to get by friends and family members:
“The numbers went down [of how many tickets I had to get] because they knew my hands were tied, but I know half of my high school was there for sure. It was pretty cool though. it was a big fight for all of them because all of them have known me since I was like five years old and to see where I came from… I’m from a town of 2,500 people. To be fighting in the biggest UFC [event] of all time for the world belt and to put on a fight like that, everyone was emotionally involved in that fight.”
The effect the raucous hometown crowd had on his performance:
“It was just a constant stream [of cheering], that’s what I was hearing. It just made me try that much harder. I think I proved there is no quit in me. I know I was supposed to go in there and I wasn’t supposed to make it out of the first round, but I was just trying to finish him. I wanted that belt so bad.”
What the UFC thought of his performance:
“Oh, they were thrilled. They were like, ‘Heal up and we want you back as soon as you can. In another two fights you will get another crack at the title.’ I know some of the things I have to work on to take him out. I don’t think he would be lining up to fight me to tell you the honest truth.”
Where he goes from here:
“[I’m going to] just take [on] a guy who’s maybe coming off of a win because I’m still in contention. I don’t think that fight puts me on the bottom of the pile. I’m still up there with the performance I put in. Jose Aldo hasn’t lost in five years. He’s never been in any type of trouble in any of his fights and I almost finished him. I took him to his limits. People know that I’m for real and I just have to go out there and prove it again. Honestly, I think 30 seconds more and I could have finished the fight. I wasn’t stopping and he was fading. But again, the bell rang and he won, so I have to go back to the drawing board and come back stronger.”
(“Minimum wage, child labor laws, eight-hour work day – that stuff’s for pussies.”)
For a couple of years now word has been percolating that the real reason MMA can’t seem to successfully find its way through the New York State Assembly might have less to do with the sport itself than with Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta’s purported anti-union business practices back home in Nevada. The Spark Notes version is this: The Fertittas’ Station Casinos group is reportedly the largest non-union company in Las Vegas and has a longstanding beef with a powerful nationwide hotel and restaurant workers’ union called Unite Here, which claims Vegas’ Culinary Union Local 226 as its largest chapter. That relationship turned even more icy in 2000, when the brothers allegedly fired 850 of 1,000 union employees working at a casino they’d just acquired. Ever since then the union has done everything it can to put political pressure on the Fertittas’ various business ventures, including bringing its considerable lobbying clout to bear in opposition to the UFC operating in New York.
Anybody who’s ever seen a Martin Scorsese movie knows you can’t piss off one of the country’s biggest labor unions and expect to do business in the Empire State, right? That’d be like publishing nude photos of one of the UFC’s ring girls on your website and expecting to still get press credentials. Just wrong-headed and crazy. Anyway, UFC Prez Dana White has long stayed mum about the Fertitta’s feud with big labor, but this week White mustered his usual political savvy and velvet-glove oratory skills to break down MMA’s New York legalization efforts thusly …
(“Minimum wage, child labor laws, eight-hour work day – that stuff’s for pussies.”)
For a couple of years now word has been percolating that the real reason MMA can’t seem to successfully find its way through the New York State Assembly might have less to do with the sport itself than with Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta’s purported anti-union business practices back home in Nevada. The Spark Notes version is this: The Fertittas’ Station Casinos group is reportedly the largest non-union company in Las Vegas and has a longstanding beef with a powerful nationwide hotel and restaurant workers’ union called Unite Here, which claims Vegas’ Culinary Union Local 226 as its largest chapter. That relationship turned even more icy in 2000, when the brothers allegedly fired 850 of 1,000 union employees working at a casino they’d just acquired. Ever since then the union has done everything it can to put political pressure on the Fertittas’ various business ventures, including bringing its considerable lobbying clout to bear in opposition to the UFC operating in New York.
Anybody who’s ever seen a Martin Scorsese movie knows you can’t piss off one of the country’s biggest labor unions and expect to do business in the Empire State, right? That’d be like publishing nude photos of one of the UFC’s ring girls on your website and expecting to still get press credentials. Just wrong-headed and crazy. Anyway, UFC Prez Dana White has long stayed mum about the Fertitta’s feud with big labor, but this week White mustered his usual political savvy and velvet-glove oratory skills to break down MMA’s New York legalization efforts thusly …
“It has nothing to do with mixed martial arts, the reason that we’re not in New York,” he told MMA Weekly. “It has to do with the Culinary Union. The Culinary Union is spending millions of dollars of all these people who pay dues to keep us out of there because my partners, the Fertitta brothers, are the largest non-union gaming company in the country … These union idiots, all these people work in the Culinary Union, paying all their money towards dues, this is what all their money’s being spent towards.”
According to a 2008 report from MMA Payout, Unite Here is a heavyweight on the New York political scene, with 90,000 members in that state alone. Payout reports “the union spent $100,000 lobbying the Albany legislature (in 2007) and made more than $130,000 in political contributions to the Democratic and Working Families parties. That financial commitment dwarfs the UFC’s reported $40,000 in donations to New York Democrats.”
We assume this is still going on today. So, if you were wondering how the UFC made some contributions to the campaign of New York governor Andrew Cuomo last year, only to have MMA legalization disappear from his annual agenda, that’s probably your answer. We hate to openly speculate (no we don’t) but given Dana’s quote above, it also sounds like we won’t be seeing MMA legalized in New York for some time. Or at least until the Fertittas become better bosses.
(Mendes thinks he can expose Aldo on the ground using his wrestling prowess)
Number one UFC featherweight contender Chad Mendes watched Jose Aldo grind out a decision win over Mark Hominick live at the Rogers Centre in Toronto and walked away from the event with the confidence that he can beat the previously thought invincible UFC featherweight champion.
Mendes told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto yesterday that he isn’t buying the excuse that the Aldo was sick going into the bout or that the strain of cutting weight after adding muscle the past several months left him in a weakened state strength and conditioning-wise.
(Mendes thinks he can expose Aldo on the ground using his wrestling prowess)
Number one UFC featherweight contender Chad Mendes watched Jose Aldo grind out a decision win over Mark Hominick live at the Rogers Centre in Toronto and walked away from the event with the confidence that he can beat the previously thought invincible UFC featherweight champion.
Mendes told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto yesterday that he isn’t buying the excuse that the Aldo was sick going into the bout or that the strain of cutting weight after adding muscle the past several months left him in a weakened state strength and conditioning-wise.
“The weight cut might have been part of it but I’m sticking with it’s a completely different kind of conditioning when you’re on the ground. His wrestling and grappling conditioning is not the same as his standup conditioning,” Mendes explained. “Being explosive on the feet is different than grappling, with the squeezing and pushing and pulling. It’s different on your muscles. We haven’t seen him on the ground a lot and I think that played a part in how tired he looked.”
The morale boost the fight gave him will be a great springboard for Mendes to begin camp for his eventual clash with Aldo at a yet-to-be-determined date.
“I just remember thinking, ‘Wow. This isn’t what I thought it was going to be,’” Mendes recalled. “Honestly, it’s what I wanted to see, though. We haven’t seen anybody get on top of him or him do much grappling.That’s really the only place I wanted to see this guy and getting to see it was a huge confidence booster for me.”
UFC president Dana White announced during the post-fight press conference Saturday night that Mendes is likely next in line for a shot at the belt, but “Money” reveals that his shot has been secured for a while.
“My manager started talking to Dana [White] about this about a month ago,” Mendes said. “I was just telling somebody I can’t believe it’s already here – fighting for a UFC world title. I’ve only been fighting for less than three years. It’s awesome. I’m pumped.”
While the speculation surrounding a superfight between Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre continues to grow, Japanese star Yushin Okami looks to spoil that opportunity, as he will challenge the Brazilian for the UFC middleweight title at UFC Rio this summer.
