Gareth Evans is the badass Welsh writer/director behind The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2, two of the most insane, over-the-top, and entertaining action flicks released in the last decade. In this clip, Evans discusses his five favorite movie fight scenes, which have all influenced his work in one way or another. Short version: Evans loves him some Jackie Chan, and the mall battle from Police Story (skip to 7:05-10:53 in the video) might be Jackie’s masterpiece. Plus, the Roddy Piper vs. Keith David alley-fight scene from They Live makes an appearance, because how could it not?
Even if you haven’t seen The Raid movies, it’s fascinating to hear Evans break down these scenes from a filmmaker’s perspective. Check it out.
Gareth Evans is the badass Welsh writer/director behind The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2, two of the most insane, over-the-top, and entertaining action flicks released in the last decade. In this clip, Evans discusses his five favorite movie fight scenes, which have all influenced his work in one way or another. Short version: Evans loves him some Jackie Chan, and the mall battle from Police Story (skip to 7:05-10:53 in the video) might be Jackie’s masterpiece. Plus, the Roddy Piper vs. Keith David alley-fight scene from They Live makes an appearance, because how could it not?
Even if you haven’t seen The Raid movies, it’s fascinating to hear Evans break down these scenes from a filmmaker’s perspective. Check it out.
Erasing the bitter memory of his unsuccessful Octagon debut,Luke Rockhold began building his own UFC highlight-reel last night at UFC Fight Night 35 with a first-round body-kick TKO of Costa Philippou. Rockhold picked up a $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus for the effort. At the post-fight press conference, Rockhold did what every surging middleweight does after a big win — he called out Michael Bisping:
“I’m looking at anyone in the middleweight division to get myself back into (title) position,” Rockhold said. “I already let it be known Bisping’s out there. A lot of people are calling him out, but Bisping went on national TV and told everybody he was the unofficial Strikeforce champion. He calls it a joke and this and that, but I say he’s got bad taste and he needs to pay for it.”
In other bonus news, featherweight Cole Miller won Submission of the Night for his second-round rear-naked choke of Sam Sicilia — which Miller followed up by calling out Donald “Clownboy” Cerrone in the post-fight interview — while middleweights Yoel Romero and Derek Brunson both got $50,000 bumps for FOTN. Highlights from both those matches are embedded at the end of this post.
Erasing the bitter memory of his unsuccessful Octagon debut,Luke Rockhold began building his own UFC highlight-reel last night at UFC Fight Night 35 with a first-round body-kick TKO of Costa Philippou. Rockhold picked up a $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus for the effort. At the post-fight press conference, Rockhold did what every surging middleweight does after a big win — he called out Michael Bisping:
“I’m looking at anyone in the middleweight division to get myself back into (title) position,” Rockhold said. “I already let it be known Bisping’s out there. A lot of people are calling him out, but Bisping went on national TV and told everybody he was the unofficial Strikeforce champion. He calls it a joke and this and that, but I say he’s got bad taste and he needs to pay for it.”
In other bonus news, featherweight Cole Miller won Submission of the Night for his second-round rear-naked choke of Sam Sicilia — which Miller followed up by calling out Donald “Clownboy” Cerrone in the post-fight interview — while middleweights Yoel Romero and Derek Brunson both got $50,000 bumps for FOTN. Highlights from both those matches are embedded at the end of this post.
In injury news, Derek Brunson was taken to a hospital after the event to reportedly have surgery on a fractured jaw. (I’m surprised he didn’t have a bunch of broken ribs as well, thanks to all those elbows that Romero dropped on him in the finish. By the way, was that a late stoppage or what? Referee Blake Grice should have to chip in for Brunson’s medical bills.) Also, Cole Miller broke his hand and will find out today if he needs surgery.
“First of all, I don’t know if anybody remembers this but Georges St. Pierre is the one who said that he wanted to do the extra drug testing because he wanted to prove that he wasn’t on drugs. It wasn’t that he thought that Johny Hendricks was on steroids or performance enhancing drugs of any kind; he wanted to do this…[Y]ou see it in boxing all the time. One guy comes out and says ‘I want to do extra drug testing because I’m worried about this guy and I want to see what’s going on.’ They never come to an agreement. This guy says ‘I want to use this one’, this guy says ‘I want to use that one’; the Nevada State Athletic Commission is going to test them, okay?
“Now, a lot of things… I’ve talked about the Nevada State Athletic Commission as far as the refs and the judges; they drug test. Not only did they drug test Josh Barnett for his last fight because Josh Barnett has been busted for performance enhancing drugs before, they also made Travis Browne do it at the same time and the UFC paid for that. We paid for that drug testing. Also, for him to say we’re very lenient on drug testing, when we go out of the country and we regulate ourselves we test everybody on the card, not just the main event, not just the co-main event. You want to talk about being lenient? The fight that I was screaming about, yelling about that it was the greatest fight I’ve ever seen, Mark Hunt vs. Bigfoot Silva, we tested the guys for that fight, we caught Bigfoot Silva, and he got destroyed. Literally, got destroyed for going over the limit.
“He didn’t test positive, what he did was: Vitor Belfort, Bigfoot Silva, any of these other guys that are on TRT we test them throughout their whole camp. He did his last test the week of the fight and his numbers were fine. He took a shot after he got tested. So we tested him again after and his levels were through the roof and he got destroyed. Lost the win money that we gave him, lost the bonus money that we gave him, and obviously he’s not getting an extra bonus. The guy got smashed, and he’s suspended for a year. So if that’s lenient on drugs I guess we’re lenient then. I mean, I don’t even know what to say to it…
“What I heard is Georges St. Pierre is upset about some of the things I said at the press conference and he’s upset that I said that he didn’t win the fight, that I thought Johny Hendricks won the fight. But if that’s the case, call me man-to-man. Let’s talk on the phone, let’s sit down face-to-face. I talked to him after the fight face-to-face (and) he didn’t say any of that to me. So the whole thing is a little weird…
“And then as far as the other thing he said that we’re a monopoly? Viacom is our competitor. They have a $40 billion market cap. $40 billion. I’m never going to see $40 billion for as long as I live. Neither will the UFC, so we’re not a monopoly either.
“So, everything Georges St. Pierre says is a little kooky. That’s the other thing too: I’m here, I’ve been in Atlanta, I’ve been on planes, and doing all this stuff. Lorenzo reached out to him and Lorenzo still hasn’t heard from him yet. If Georges St. Pierre wants to talk like a man he can pick up the phone and call us or come see us face-to-face, but everything that he said is ridiculous.”
Full results from UFC Fight Night 35 are below; click the links for video highlights from each fight.
Taking place during a bout between Gamlet Driaev and Raul Tutarauli at Championship USSR: Battle 6 last Saturday, it’s safe to say that this might be not only the most brutal guillotine choke ever executed in MMA History, but the most insane finishing sequence in MMA History. A near double-KO, an armbar attempt, a guillotine in which Driaev lifts Tutarauli into the air like a child’s plaything, a technical submission,*and* a TKO thrown in for good measure?
Pack it in, boys and girls. Ain’t nobody topping this guillotine anytime soon.
Taking place during a bout between Gamlet Driaev and Raul Tutarauli at Championship USSR: Battle 6 last Saturday, it’s safe to say that this might be not only the most brutal guillotine choke ever executed in MMA History, but the most insane finishing sequence in MMA History. A near double-KO, an armbar attempt, a guillotine in which Driaev lifts Tutarauli into the air like a child’s plaything, a technical submission,*and* a TKO thrown in for good measure?
Pack it in, boys and girls. Ain’t nobody topping this guillotine anytime soon.
When an MMA fighter gets KO’d immediately after a glove-tap, it often means that his opponent was being a cheap dick about it. But in the lightning-fast knockout you see above, all blame should lay upon the victim. See, if you’re going to touch gloves before a fight, do it fast and then get out of the way. DON’T lumber forward with your feet flat and your chin out. And after you do your little fist-bump, for the love of God, get your damn hands up or you will be head-kicked into an embarrassing reverse somersault, like this idiot.
If you’ll notice, the guy on the left doesn’t initiate the tap, but he’s courteous enough to oblige when dipshit over there dangles his arm out like an overcooked noodle. Guy On The Left sees an opportunity, and snatches it with a front-leg roundhouse to the face. The impact is loud, and it is awesome. The only disappointing part is that the shirtless guy still looked like he was ready to bang some more. Ah well. Let this be a lesson to the rest of you aspiring fighters: After the ref starts the fight, “Wait, bro, I wasn’t ready” isn’t really a valid excuse.
When an MMA fighter gets KO’d immediately after a glove-tap, it often means that his opponent was being a cheap dick about it. But in the lightning-fast knockout you see above, all blame should lay upon the victim. See, if you’re going to touch gloves before a fight, do it fast and then get out of the way. DON’T lumber forward with your feet flat and your chin out. And after you do your little fist-bump, for the love of God, get your damn hands up or you will be head-kicked into an embarrassing reverse somersault, like this idiot.
If you’ll notice, the guy on the left doesn’t initiate the tap, but he’s courteous enough to oblige when dipshit over there dangles his arm out like an overcooked noodle. Guy On The Left sees an opportunity, and snatches it with a front-leg roundhouse to the face. The impact is loud, and it is awesome. The only disappointing part is that the shirtless guy still looked like he was ready to bang some more. Ah well. Let this be a lesson to the rest of you aspiring fighters: After the ref starts the fight, “Wait, bro, I wasn’t ready” isn’t really a valid excuse.
(Classic Marina, always having to one up her big shot BFF.)
If you tuned into The Ultimate Fighter at all this season (which judging by the ratings, you probably didn’t), you might have noticed the brooding brunette oft seen standing at Ronda Rousey‘s side, assisting her in training demonstrations, flipping off Miesha Tate, and other such shenanigans. Her name is Marina Shafir, and aside from being Rousey’s longtime training partner/B.F.F, she’s also an undefeated amateur MMA fighter who had secured three straight wins via first round armbar (sound familiar?).
That was of course, until last weekend, when Shafir captured the Tuff-n-Uff women’s featherweight title via a first round submission of Tabitha Patterson at the aptly titled “Future Stars of MMA.” The victory was Shafir’s second in a row to come at the 59 second mark, but in the interest of providing you with some motivation to view the fight video after the jump, we will leave the technique with which Shafir secured said victory up in the air.
(Classic Marina, always having to one up her big shot BFF.)
If you tuned into The Ultimate Fighter at all this season (which judging by the ratings, you probably didn’t), you might have noticed the brooding brunette oft seen standing at Ronda Rousey‘s side, assisting her in training demonstrations, flipping off Miesha Tate, and other such shenanigans. Her name is Marina Shafir, and aside from being Rousey’s longtime training partner/B.F.F, she’s also an undefeated amateur MMA fighter who had secured three straight wins via first round armbar (sound familiar?).
That was of course, until last weekend, when Shafir captured the Tuff-n-Uff women’s featherweight title via a first round submission of Tabitha Patterson at the aptly titled “Future Stars of MMA.” The victory was Shafir’s second in a row to come at the 59 second mark, but in the interest of providing you with some motivation to view the fight video after the jump, we will leave the technique with which Shafir secured said victory up in the air.
As you can see, Shafir’s standup is unpolished at best, but the woman’s ground game is as overwhelming and vicious as her fellow judoka’s. Just look at how she forced that arm triangle into existence from the moment she pushed Patterson against the cage. As is always the case with Rousey’s opponents, Patterson knew what was coming, and she still couldn’t stop it.
Now that I think of it, the whole finishing sequence reminds me of the harrowing 2008 documentary, Dawn of the Dead. While trapped in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, Sir Ving Rhames declares that ”There are things worse than death, and one of them is sitting here waiting to die.” That’s how I imagine what it must be like to fight Rousey, and to a lesser extent, Shafir. You sign up for the fight, clinging to the hope that you will somehow achieve the impossible, yet ultimately knowing that it can only end in you wiping your ass with the other hand. That, my friends, is worse than death.
Last night’s TUF 18 semifinal fight between Team Tate members Julianna Pena and Sarah Moras was actually a rematch. In April 2012, the two fighters met at a Conquest of the Cage event in Washington, and Moras won by doctor’s stoppage TKO at the end of two rounds, after popping Julianna’s elbow with an armbar. (As Moras explained during last night’s episode, Pena refused to tap.)
The majority of the TUF 18 cast was rooting for Moras to repeat history, as Pena had become the most despised female fighter in the house. The Venezuelan Vixen had other plans, however. Check out the video above to watch the complete two-round scrap, which Pena dominated in the standup and on the mat. Though Sarah searched for another armbar in round 2, she found herself bloodied by Pena’s elbows, and tapped to a guillotine choke when she turtled to escape the abuse.
Pena’s victory earned what might have been the saddest, least enthusiastic round of applause in TUF history. But screw the haters — she’s punched a ticket to the Finals against the winner of Raquel Pennington vs. Jessica Rakoczy.
Sarah Moras actually lost twice in this episode, if you count her living-room wrestling match fiasco against Anthony Gutierrez. You can watch that clip after the jump.
Last night’s TUF 18 semifinal fight between Team Tate members Julianna Pena and Sarah Moras was actually a rematch. In April 2012, the two fighters met at a Conquest of the Cage event in Washington, and Moras won by doctor’s stoppage TKO at the end of two rounds, after popping Julianna’s elbow with an armbar. (As Moras explained during last night’s episode, Pena refused to tap.)
The majority of the TUF 18 cast was rooting for Moras to repeat history, as Pena had become the most despised female fighter in the house. The Venezuelan Vixen had other plans, however. Check out the video above to watch the complete two-round scrap, which Pena dominated in the standup and on the mat. Though Sarah searched for another armbar in round 2, she found herself bloodied by Pena’s elbows, and tapped to a guillotine choke when she turtled to escape the abuse.
Pena’s victory earned what might have been the saddest, least enthusiastic round of applause in TUF history. But screw the haters — she’s punched a ticket to the Finals against the winner of Raquel Pennington vs. Jessica Rakoczy.
Sarah Moras actually lost twice in this episode, if you count her living-room wrestling match fiasco against Anthony Gutierrez. You can watch that clip after the jump.
