Tag: Fight booking

So, Roy Jones Jr. And ‘Kimbo Slice’ Are Going to Fight Each Other

If it wasn’t already crystal clear that former pound for pound boxing great Roy Jones Jr.’s near twenty-five year career had gone on for far too long, Thursday it was announced that he will fight Kevin ‘Kimbo Slice’ Ferguson in Jamaica in December. This fight that no one asked for and that no self-respecting athletic commission would sanction is apparently being made possible by something called Giomax Entertainment Company and Stewart’s Auto Sales.

Yup.

Jones went the first fourteen years or so of his professional boxing career without a real loss (He was disqualified for hitting Montell Griffin while he was down in 1997 and promptly KO’d him when they re-matched five months later) and dominated multiple weight classes on his way to being considered, at times, the world’s best boxer, pound for pound. But since 2004 Jones has gone 7-7, with four of those losses being ugly knockouts or TKO’s.

If it wasn’t already crystal clear that former pound for pound boxing great Roy Jones Jr.’s near twenty-five year career had gone on for far too long, Thursday it was announced that he will fight Kevin ‘Kimbo Slice’ Ferguson in Jamaica in December. This fight that no one asked for and that no self-respecting athletic commission would sanction is apparently being made possible by something called Giomax Entertainment Company and Stewart’s Auto Sales.

Yup.

Jones went the first fourteen years or so of his professional boxing career without a real loss (He was disqualified for hitting Montell Griffin while he was down in 1997 and promptly KO’d him when they re-matched five months later) and dominated multiple weight classes on his way to being considered, at times, the world’s best boxer, pound for pound. But since 2004 Jones has gone 7-7, with four of those losses being ugly knockouts or TKO’s.

And so, it has come to this for Jones Jr. Fighting Slice, who is best known for fighting boxing schlubs in South Florida and having those sloppy competitions posted on YouTube, will be a career-low for Jones.

Sure, Kimbo moved past dock boxing to, first, getting propped (EliteXC) and then easily over matched (UFC) up in MMA, and since moving to professional boxing recently he’s built a 5-0 record. We can’t begrudge Slice his financial success and for taking his fame and running with it but Jones has over sixty professional boxing matches, before that was an Olympian (Do yourself a favor and see him dominate the ’88 Olympics and then get screwed out of the gold medal, if you haven’t already).

Jones Jr. vs. Kimbo is a textbook example of the worst part of the fight world – businessmen trying to make a quick buck with sad and silly match ups that exploit fighters and put them at risk. We really have no interest in promoting this bout anymore than we just have so if you want details of when this piece of garbage is supposed to happen, and where, check out the doting article written by The Jamaican Observer.

– Elias Cepeda

Barnburner Alert: Eddie Alvarez to Face Patricky “Pitbull” Freire in Final Bellator Appearance

Eddie Alvarez Bellator tk
(Suck it, Javier Sotomayor.) 

In what will either make for a triumphant or disastrous turning point in Eddie Alvarez’s career (specifically, his marketability), the former Bellator lightweight champion has been booked to take on Brazilian knockout artist Patricky “Pitbull” Freire at Bellator 75, which goes down on October 12th at Caesar’s Windsor in Canada.

After collecting seven straight wins under the Bellator banner (6 by way of stoppage), Alvarez lost his lightweight strap in dramatic fashion, falling prey to a fourth round submission in a battle for the ages at Bellator 58 to Michael Chandler. Most recently, Alvarez earned some much sought after revenge when he battered and dispatched Shinya Aoki in the first round of their Bellator 66 throwdown, and immediately began  making his case for a potential spot amongst the UFC’s ever growing lightweight roster thereafter. It just goes to show what beating up a man in multi-colored pastel tights can do for one’s confidence.

Eddie Alvarez Bellator tk
(Suck it, Javier Sotomayor.) 

In what will either make for a triumphant or disastrous turning point in Eddie Alvarez’s career (specifically, his marketability), the former Bellator lightweight champion has been booked to take on Brazilian knockout artist Patricky “Pitbull” Freire at Bellator 75, which goes down on October 12th at Caesar’s Windsor in Canada.

After collecting seven straight wins under the Bellator banner (6 by way of stoppage), Alvarez lost his lightweight strap in dramatic fashion, falling prey to a fourth round submission in a battle for the ages at Bellator 58 to Michael Chandler. Most recently, Alvarez earned some much sought after revenge when he battered and dispatched Shinya Aoki in the first round of their Bellator 66 throwdown, and immediately began  making his case for a potential spot amongst the UFC’s ever growing lightweight roster thereafter. It just goes to show what beating up a man in multi-colored pastel tights can do for one’s confidence.

Patricky, on the other hand, will be looking to rebound from a huge upset he suffered in the quarterfinals of Bellator’s Season 6 lightweight tournament, where he was submitted in Frank Mir-esque fashion by Lloyd Woodward in the second round. Considering that Pitbull made it all the way to the finals of the previous season’s tournament, where he would be upended by, you guessed it, Michael Chandler, the defeat all but completely derailed his momentum train.

A win over Alvarez, however, would launch him right back into to the short list of contenders in Bellator’s moderately stacked (I’m feeling generous today) lightweight division. And given Alvarez’s tendency to get rocked at least once in most of his fights, Freire stands as good a chance as any of upsetting the 23-3 former champ. As we all know, Alvarez and the UFC have expressed a shared interest in one another in the near future, so a win over Pitbull would surely validate a possible signing. A loss, however, could cost him a chance to compete in the sport’s highest promotion altogether.

But hey, we’ve heard that the UFC is more than willing to sign a former Bellator champ with a considerable amount of hype behind him before, so as long as Alvarez doesn’t spend fifteen minutes imitating the striking attack of Marcus “Big Baby” Jones, he will more than likely be UFC bound. In either case, this match should make for one hell of a barnburner.

That being said, who do you like for this one?

–J. Jones

Gilbert Melendez Finally Booked to Fight Someone Other Than Josh Thompson on September 29th


(And to think, if I hadn’t accidentally called Dana “Baldfather” during that interview, I’d be fighting Ben Henderson right about now.) 

When we first heard word that Strikeforce was considering booking a completely unnecessary fourth match between lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thompson, we more or less saw it as a sign that Strikeforce’s lightweight division, not unlike their heavyweight, welterweight, and pretty much every other division, was simply biding its time until the UFC inevitably absorbed it. We were elated to find out shortly thereafter that Thompson was making the whole thing up, possibly under the belief that if the rumor gained enough steam, Scott Coker would sit idly by and let the match happen again and again until Thompson finally emerged victorious.

Fortunately, someone had good enough sense to book Melendez a fight against top contender Pat Healy on September 29th instead, which will make for Melendez’s fifth title defense should he be successful. Although Healy can’t hold a candle to Thompson as far as turning in exciting performances goes (Thompson’s snoozer against K.J. Noons outstanding), it will be nice to see Melendez finally face off against the only other lightweight in the division who stands at least a snowball’s chance in Hell of beating him.

More details after the jump. 


(And to think, if I hadn’t accidentally called Dana “Baldfather” during that interview, I’d be fighting Ben Henderson right about now.) 

When we first heard word that Strikeforce was considering booking a completely unnecessary fourth match between lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thompson, we more or less saw it as a sign that Strikeforce’s lightweight division, not unlike their heavyweight, welterweight, and pretty much every other division, was simply biding its time until the UFC inevitably absorbed it. We were elated to find out shortly thereafter that Thompson was making the whole thing up, possibly under the belief that if the rumor gained enough steam, Scott Coker would sit idly by and let the match happen again and again until Thompson finally emerged victorious.

Fortunately, someone had good enough sense to book Melendez a fight against top contender Pat Healy on September 29th instead, which will make for Melendez’s fifth title defense should he be successful. Although Healy can’t hold a candle to Thompson as far as turning in exciting performances goes (Thompson’s snoozer against K.J. Noons outstanding), it will be nice to see Melendez finally face off against the only other lightweight in the division who stands at least a snowball’s chance in Hell of beating him.

Strikeforce made the announcement earlier today via its official Twitter account:

We’re coming to Sacramento, and we’re bringing @GilbertMelendez@BamBamHealy & @dc_mma with us…http://www.strikeforce.com/news/SF4-pressrelease-news … Tix on sale this Sat!

Healy has been playing the role of hype train derailer for his past few fights now, submitting prospects Maximo Blanco and Caros Fodor in back-to-back contests before most recently earning a hard fought unanimous decision over a guy that is best known for becoming Shinya Aoki’s eternal bitch at K1 Dynamite!!! 2009. Now 6-1 in his past 7 Strikeforce appearances, Healy has more than earned his shot at Melendez in a division that has less than 5 contenders still remaining.

Who you got?

–J. Jones

Wow, It’s Actually Happening: Former WWE Champion Dave Bautista Making MMA Debut on October 6


“Okay Chael, I got right into the triangle defense you taught me! Now what?”

File this one under “Better (I guess) late than never.”

TMZ is reporting that former WWE Champion Dave Bautista – better known by his incredibly clever stage name “Batista” – has inked a deal with Rhode Island’s CES MMA. He will be making his professional MMA debut on October 6, which will take place at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

His opponent is thirty-three year old Rashid “Smash” Evans, who will also be making his professional MMA debut. Evans went 3-2 in amateur competition, with his most recent victory being a second round submission via strikes victory over Brett Jenkins at Barbarian Fight Club “2012” in January.


“Okay Chael, I got right into the triangle defense you taught me! Now what?”

File this one under “Better (I guess) late than never.”

TMZ is reporting that former WWE Champion Dave Bautista – better known by his incredibly clever stage name “Batista” – has inked a deal with Rhode Island’s CES MMA. He will be making his professional MMA debut on October 6, which will take place at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

His opponent is thirty-three year old Rashid ”Smash” Evans, who will also be making his professional MMA debut. Evans went 3-2 in amateur competition, with his most recent victory being a second round submission via strikes victory over Brett Jenkins at Barbarian Fight Club “2012″ in January.


“Smash” Evans, losing to Kyle Bilquist at last year’s New Breed Fighters XXXV. Sorry, guys, it was the only video I could find for the guy.

For those who don’t remember, Bautista has been promising to make his professional MMA debut long enough for most of us to stop caring. The 6’6, 300 pound master of the “Batista Bomb” first announced in 2010 that he had signed with Strikeforce, and almost immediately began mean-mugging in the 209 with the Cesar Gracie crew. After a claim that a fight purse had been agreed upon, and a well-timed callout from Bobby Lashley, it certainly looked like the superfight (or “superfight”) of the decade was in the making.

Unfortunately (“unfortunately”), the Zuffa buyout of Strikeforce in March 2011 squashed the whole “Bautista to Strikeforce” idea, making the aforementioned Lashley vs. Bautista superfight more likely to come about as a Taipei Death Match than a legitimate competition. ”The Animal Batista” would go on to open his own MMA gym, but most of us had assumed he was just trolling with his promises of competing in MMA.

At 43 years old, it’s probably too late for Dave Bautista to have a meaningful MMA career. He could be the next Brock Lesnar, yes – just like I could win a Pulitzer. With enough hard work and dedication to his training, the idea of him being the next Bobby Lashley is far more realistic. Fittingly, the whole Lashley vs. Bautista fight may very well come to fruition as well (three years too late, but again, better late than never). And if literally everything else fails, he could easily be the next Bob Sapp.

Give credit where credit is due, though: Sensei Seagal and Koji Oishi combined couldn’t hold a candle to this guy’s ability to punch away rubber knives while strutting around, puffing his chest out. Behold:


You’re welcome.

So, after watching both men in action, who ya got?

@SethFalvo

Miesha Tate Returns to Action Against Julie Kedzie at ‘Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman’

Miesha Tate bikini photos MMA fighter Strikeforce hot
(It may not be the most conventional fight attire, but we’ll give Miesha a ton of fap style points for the effort.) 

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a few short months since Miesha Tate nearly had her arm torn in two by Ronda Rousey in the their bantamweight championship showdown on March 3rd. It was undoubtedly one of the most heated (not to mention hyped) fights in WMMA history, and did not disappoint once the caged door closed. As it turns out, despite the fact that Meisha ended up coming short and losing her belt in the process, the fight didn’t even come close to squashing the beef between her and Rousey. How appropriate then, that it was recently announced that the former champ has been booked to take on Julie Kedzie at the same event that Rousey will attempt to defend her belt for the first time against Sarah Kaufman.

Is this just an attempt by Strikeforce to pack as many exciting fights as possible into their ever-decreasing number of cards, or rather an elaborate ploy to set up another post fight brawl that will in turn hype the inevitable rematch between Rousey and Tate?

Miesha Tate bikini photos MMA fighter Strikeforce hot
(It may not be the most conventional fight attire, but we’ll give Miesha a ton of fap style points for the effort.) 

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a few short months since Miesha Tate nearly had her arm torn in two by Ronda Rousey in the their bantamweight championship showdown on March 3rd. It was undoubtedly one of the most heated (not to mention hyped) fights in WMMA history, and did not disappoint once the caged door closed. As it turns out, despite the fact that Meisha ended up coming short and losing her belt in the process, the fight didn’t even come close to squashing the beef between her and Rousey. How appropriate then, that it was recently announced that the former champ has been booked to take on Julie Kedzie at the same event that Rousey will attempt to defend her belt for the first time against Sarah Kaufman.

Is this just an attempt by Strikeforce to pack as many exciting fights as possible into their ever-decreasing number of cards, or rather an elaborate ploy to set up another post fight brawl that will in turn hype the inevitable rematch between Rousey and Tate? Only time will tell, Potato Nation, but we just hope we don’t have to see Brian Caraway taking on all of Team Cesar Gracie by himself. Dude’s got a hell of a chin, but it damn sure ain’t strong enough to deal with the Stockton curb stomp that the Diaz’s have perfected in such classic quarrels as “The Nashville Dissagreement on Post-Fight Ethics.”

Tate will be given no easy comeback fight in Kedzie, who you might recognize as one of the announcers from the Invicta FC all-female card back in May. Currently 16-9 in professional competition, Kedzie is a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do who holds notable victories over Kaitlin Young and Jan Finney (aka that poor girl who was killed by Chris Cyborg back in 2010), Kedzie has not fought since coming up short against Alexis Davis at Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Fedor back in July of 2011.

Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman goes down on August 18th from the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, California.

Who you like for this one, Potato Nation?

–J. Jones

Todd Duffee vs. Jeff Monson to Headline Super Fight League 4 on Sept. 8th


(Take it easy, Todd, it’s not like you’re Anthony Johnson or somethin’.) 

We’ll give the fellas behind Super Fight League this, aside from their overly-lavish-yet-somehow-clusterfucked-production, their motocross-sized ring, and their pants-shittingly terrible theme song, they manage to book some intriguing matchups every now and again. Considering how green of a promotion SFL is, we’d almost consider throwing our support behind them if they didn’t insist on cancelling out those interesting matchups with ones involving Bob Sapp or Bobby Lashley on every other card. But today, we can put another check in the “You have our attention” column for the Indian promotion, as it has been announced that former UFC slugger Todd Duffee and Heavyweight submission/anarchy specialist Jeff Monson have been booked to throw down in the headlining bout of SFL’s fourth event.

Okay, so it’s not a match that will likely make your butthole pucker with excitement, but it’s a huge step up from their last headliner, and that counts for something, right?

We last saw the “official” record holder for fastest UFC knockout in action at Super Fight League’s second event, where he successfully knocked the poop out of Neil Grove in just over 30 seconds, snapping a two fight skidmark in the process. In case you haven’t noticed, the overarching theme of this article is all things related to feces. Just go with it.

Monson, on the other hand, is coming off a first round submission via North-South choke over Denis Komkin at the same M-1 Global event that saw Fedor Emelianenko nearly retire Pedro Rizzo from the waking world before announcing his own retirement from the sport shortly thereafter. Perhaps the most interesting angle of this match is that Monson has never been truly KO’d before, unless you count that time his ex-girlfriend nearly knocked him out of MMA competition for a decade by leaking those photos of him desecrating the Washington State Capitol building. In fact, Monson hasn’t even been finished in over 5 years (a third round TKO loss to Pedro Rizzo back in September of 2007), so Duffee can really make a statement if he is able to put away a guy like “The Snowman” considering not even Daniel Cormier was able to do so.

Videos of both fighter’s most recent performances are after the jump. 


(Take it easy, Todd, it’s not like you’re Anthony Johnson or somethin’.) 

We’ll give the fellas behind Super Fight League this, aside from their overly-lavish-yet-somehow-clusterfucked-production, their motocross-sized ring, and their pants-shittingly terrible theme song, they manage to book some intriguing matchups every now and again. Considering how green of a promotion SFL is, we’d almost consider throwing our support behind them if they didn’t insist on cancelling out those interesting matchups with ones involving Bob Sapp or Bobby Lashley on every other card. But today, we can put another check in the “You have our attention” column for the Indian promotion, as it has been announced that former UFC slugger Todd Duffee and Heavyweight submission/anarchy specialist Jeff Monson have been booked to throw down in the headlining bout of SFL’s fourth event.

Okay, so it’s not a match that will likely make your butthole pucker with excitement, but it’s a huge step up from their last headliner, and that counts for something, right?

We last saw the “official” record holder for fastest UFC knockout in action at Super Fight League’s second event, where he successfully knocked the poop out of Neil Grove in just over 30 seconds, snapping a two-fight skidmark in the process. In case you haven’t noticed, the overarching theme of this article is all things related to feces. Just go with it.

Monson, on the other hand, is coming off a first round submission via North-South choke over Denis Komkin at the same M-1 Global event that saw Fedor Emelianenko nearly retire Pedro Rizzo from the waking world before announcing his own retirement from the sport shortly thereafter. Perhaps the most interesting angle of this match is that Monson has never been truly KO’d before, unless you count that time his ex-girlfriend nearly knocked him out of MMA competition for a decade by leaking those photos of him desecrating the Washington State Capitol building. In fact, Monson hasn’t even been finished in over 5 years (a third round TKO loss to Pedro Rizzo back in September of 2007), so Duffee can really make a statement if he is able to put away a guy like “The Snowman” considering not even Daniel Cormier was able to do so.

Videos of both fighter’s most recent performances are after below.

Duffee vs. Grove (fight starts at the 4:25 mark) 

Monson vs. Komkin 

Super Fight League 4 is set to go down on September 8th in Bengaluru, India, and will also feature a clash between Olympic judoka gold medalist Satoshi Ishii and three time hot dog eating bronze medalist Jimmy Ambriz. So now you pretty much HAVE to watch this event.

–J. Jones