Nick Diaz came one step closer to his grumpy transitiontoward a boxing career today, as a press release was distributed claiming that Jeff Lacy has officially signed to box Diaz this fall. A former IBF super-middleweight champion, Lacy was one of the guys who Gary Shaw dismissed as an irrelevant opponent for Diaz, but when you have a 1-0 record in boxing (as Diaz does), beggars can’t be choosers. In fact, Diaz is just as irrelevant an opponent for Lacy when you think about it, but whatever.
No date or venue has been named yet, although the event will be titled “Breaking History.” (Good. As long as we have the important stuff locked down, everything else should fall into place on its own.) Said promoter Don Chargin in the press release: “This is a very dangerous fight for both men. Not only is this fight dangerous but stylistically it is very intriguing. I expected more resistance from fight fans and media in regards to this match-up but it’s amazing as to the hundreds of calls and e-mails I’ve received from fans on both sides wanting to see this match-up take place. I’ve received more than a few inquiries from some other very high-profile boxers that want to step up and fight Nick. Its been a real whirlwind…
Nick Diaz came one step closer to his grumpy transitiontoward a boxing career today, as a press release was distributed claiming that Jeff Lacy has officially signed to box Diaz this fall. A former IBF super-middleweight champion, Lacy was one of the guys who Gary Shaw dismissed as an irrelevant opponent for Diaz, but when you have a 1-0 record in boxing (as Diaz does), beggars can’t be choosers. In fact, Diaz is just as irrelevant an opponent for Lacy when you think about it, but whatever.
No date or venue has been named yet, although the event will be titled “Breaking History.” (Good. As long as we have the important stuff locked down, everything else should fall into place on its own.) Said promoter Don Chargin in the press release: “This is a very dangerous fight for both men. Not only is this fight dangerous but stylistically it is very intriguing. I expected more resistance from fight fans and media in regards to this match-up but it’s amazing as to the hundreds of calls and e-mails I’ve received from fans on both sides wanting to see this match-up take place. I’ve received more than a few inquiries from some other very high-profile boxers that want to step up and fight Nick. Its been a real whirlwind…
“I’ve been around boxing for quite some time and I’ve seen a lot of great, tough fighters in my six decades within the sport. I believe that if Nick had been one of those kids who had picked up boxing from a youth, he’d undoubtedly be a world-champion today. Sometime within the next 2 weeks I’ll be personally making the trek to Cesar Gracie’s gym to set up a private, closed door sparring session between Nick and a few nameless top-level contenders I have in mind.”
“Honestly, I was a little stunned. Nick has accomplished a great deal in mixed martial arts and is certainly one of the best in the sport. But getting in the ring with me for a boxing match is a path he needs to be very wary of taking. I’m willing to put it all on the line anytime, anywhere!…For the right price, I’m more than interested in heading to his turf and put my fist in his mouth and silencing him.”
By the way, there hasn’t been an official statement from Nick Diaz or his camp yet confirming that they’ve signed for the fight, so take this press release with a grain of salt; as of this week, Cesar Gracie seemed to be angling for a fight between Diaz and GSP. UPDATE:Cesar Gracie tells MMAWeekly, “Yes, unless GSP is offered up as a sacrifice [by the UFC], Nick will fight Lacy.”
Not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that the UFC bought Strikeforce and UFC president Dana White has made no secret of the fact that he doesn’t care for Johnson’s fight calling abilities and as such it seemed unlikely that GuJo would be included in their vision of business as usual .
(Sometimes purple lipstick happens in MMA commentating.)
Not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that the UFC bought Strikeforce and UFC president Dana White has made no secret of the fact that he doesn’t care for Johnson’s fight calling abilities and as such it seemed unlikely that GuJo would be included in their vision of business as usual .
Maybe this is a sign that CBS may be revisiting its relationship with Strikeforce under the new Zuffa regime, or maybe its nothing one has noting to do with the other, but at least there’s hope now that the lipstick-sporting, reporter-calling, Renzo Gracie blue belt has left the network, that if they can come to terms, we won’t ever have to hear Gus proclaiming things like Seth Petruzelli beating Kimbo Slice is the greatest upset in MMA history on network television.
Johnson’s last gig with the network will be his calling of the Showtime pay-per-view broadcast of the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley bout, but after that fans may never see his make-up aden mug during another MMA broadcast.
(“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.
(Above: Bern poses with a completely terrified Joe Silva. Below: Proof that at least one human female attended our party. Success!)
As promised, here are some photographic highlights from last Thursday’s CagePotato party at Shoeless Joe’s in Toronto, with a few “Free CagePotato” photos from the UFC Fan Expo thrown in for flavor. Thanks again to everybody who came, wore our t-shirts, took pictures, and got drunk at our expense. Most of these pics were shot by CagePotato All-Star Bern E., who sent them to us out of the goodness of his heart (so he says), not to win that GSP headband signed by the Octagon Girls. Well too bad buddy, because you’re the winner anyway. I’ll be in touch.
Lots more good times after the jump.
(Above: Bern poses with a completely terrified Joe Silva. Below: Proof that at least one human female attended our party. Success!)
As promised, here are some photographic highlights from last Thursday’s CagePotato party at Shoeless Joe’s in Toronto, with a few “Free CagePotato” photos from the UFC Fan Expo thrown in for flavor. Thanks again to everybody who came, wore our t-shirts, took pictures, and got drunk at our expense. Most of these pics were shot by CagePotato All-Star Bern E., who sent them to us out of the goodness of his heart (so he says), not to win that GSP headband signed by the Octagon Girls. Well too bad buddy, because you’re the winner anyway. I’ll be in touch.
Lots more good times after the jump.
(Oh, how the beer flowed.)
(The obligatory crowd shot, part 1.)
(Miss RaRa, BG, Tracy Lee, and Emily Miller. I have no idea why I’m standing like that.)
(Bern and Gary Goodridge)
(“Beautiful” and Tony Lee)
(Mike Russell, on the far right with an orange in his drink.)
(Brad F. gave the rest of us shirt-envy.)
(The obligatory crowd-shot, part 2.)
(For bar food, you could do a lot worse.)
(“agentsmith,” too cool for a Free CagePotato shirt.)
(Fist-posin’ like champs.)
(Figure-skating and poker. Those were our viewing options.)
(Two Guinnesses at once — the surest sign of an open-bar.)
(There better be a follow-up series of blogs that follow War AFTER he’s released so we can see how disconnected from society he’s become.)
If you’ve been following the trials and tribulations of War Machine in county jail, you know that his friend on the outside who was posting his blogs let them lapse for a while and is now playing catch-up. Well, the blogs are finally up to date and unfortunately for fans of the weekly journals of one of the greatest minds of our generation, the fighter formerly known as Jon Kopenhaver only has 12 weeks remaining on his one-year sentence for assault.
Rather than post the remaining few entries verbatim, we’ve decided to print just the meat and potatoes of the blogs to get you up to date with the shenanigans WM has gotten into the past few weeks.
Check out the highlights after the jump.
(There better be a follow-up series of blogs that follow War AFTER he’s released so we can see how disconnected from society he’s become.)
If you’ve been following the trials and tribulations of War Machine in county jail, you know that his friend on the outside who was posting his blogs let them lapse for a while and is now playing catch-up. Well, the blogs are finally up to date and unfortunately for fans of the weekly journals of one of the greatest minds of our generation, the fighter formerly known as Jon Kopenhaver only has 12 weeks remaining on his one-year sentence for assault.
Rather than post the remaining few entries verbatim, we’ve decided to print just the meat and potatoes of the blogs to get you up to date with the shenanigans WM has gotten into the past few weeks.
Check out the highlights:
WEEK 37 – APRIL 2, 2011
“F-U-C-K basketball! For the past couple weeks that’s all they’ve been playing on the TV! BORING ass sport! puts me in a bad mood… ugh. Speaking of bad moods, I stubbed my toe the other day bad! It was bleeding and hurts all day! Now it’s oozing thin yellow puss! Gross, prolly got gangrene or some shit, fuckin’ toe is gonna fall off. On a positive note, I only have 3½ months left!!! =) Oh and check out this weirdness, for the last 3 or 4 days my piss has smelled just like that cologne “Safari.” … LMAO! WTF!? My dad used to wear it sometimes, I hated it… Anyway, I just thought I’d share that unexplained phenomena.”
“Anyway, solitary and the boredom that comes with it is funny. You find ANYTHING to do to take up time, even 2 minutes. As you’ve prolly seen on TV, people in jail make “fishing lines” to pass things along the tier to one another’s cells. So if I wanna borrow a magazine from a neighbor, I’ll fish my line to him and he’ll tie on the mag. so I can pull it back. If there happens to be a person in the day room and he sees me fishing it he’ll ask if I want him to just grab it for me but I’ll say no, just cuz I relish that minute distraction from the day. Another example is coffee, I hate coffee unless it’s half milk and sugar. Now, the past 3 weeks, I’m drinking it daily and I hate it! LOL! I do it just because it takes 5 minutes to heat the water and then another few mins. to drink it. I was talking to my neighbor and he said he never smoked until he went to prison and he doesn’t know why cuz he hates it. I told him, “the same reason I drink coffee, it kills a few minutes.” Then jokingly I added, “I wonder if that’s why people turn gay in prison? You know, you’re bored with nothing to do so you’re like: maybe I’ll suck my cellie’s dick… that should take 10 minutes or so??” LMAO!! Some guys in here really lose it and just talk, sing, yell, ALL DAY long. Then every other day when they get their 1 Hr. day room they act pretty normal, it’s weird. The other day though I was bored and hyper, so I started yelling dumb funny shit for like 15 mins. It was actually kinda fun… lol. Anything to entertain yourself. Hmm… What else?”
“So I’ve developed another odd habit… I’ve been pulling my nose hairs out.. lol. Guess a combo of boredom and no scissors to trim them. Some areas it hurts, some it feels kinda cool. But this hobby has a shitty downside and that’s I get frequent ingrown hairs in my nose and they hurt like no other! Makes your whole nose red like Rudolph! Every time it happens I swear I’m done, but then they grow back and, like a crack head, I’m back ripping them out! Hmmm… maybe I’m going a lil’ nuts!?”
“Oh, so the trustee that was hookin’ me up with all the bomb food vanished! I think the cops read my Twitter and changed the line-up so I don’t get hooked up anymore… sucks. I shouldn’t have said shit. Fuck! Back to dog food 3X per day! And today I got 25 pull-ups on my 1st set so my strength is back! =) I’m gonna see what I can get up to by the time I’m released. Sooo… right now there are 2 loud, crazy fucks in the hole with us. One of them is a black dude that sounds/acts whiter than White! ALL day long he sings R.E.M. songs and shit, horrible voice. And whenever someone tells him to “shut up” he says “suck my dick, suck my big 14 inch dick.” ALL DAY LONG all you hear is singing and suck my dick! Then on his hour out in the day room he comes out and acts pretty normal, it’s weird. He just comes out all quiet and will go to your cell and ask for favors and shit. He doesn’t understand that we all HATE him and that one guy is currently saving up a giant bag of shit, piss, and hair oil (to make it smear and not clean up easy), and the contents of said bag, will be coating that idiot’s cell any day now! LMAO! Can’t wait.”
WEEK 38 – April 10, 2011
“Faded and feelin’ X-rated.. lol. Later I’m gonna make a “spread.” I don’t recall if I’ve mentioned them in the past, but it’s our lil’ gourmet dish. Basically you mix: Hot Cheetos, Hot Cheez-Its, hot sauce, pork rinds, top ramen soup (drained), and these dehydrated refried beans and you put the mixture in a tortilla, it’s bomb. LOL. Funny shit is I saw a commercial for Taco Bell and saw a burrito with hot cheetos and chili cheese Fritos in it. I KNOW a fucking “convict:” invented that recipe!! LOL! Guaranteed! Other fools put Fritos or other shit in theirs but my recipe is the best, some Mexican dude taught it to me. Alright so I just did 15 minutes jump rope (pretend), 15 mins. shadow boxing, push-ups & pull-ups, 5 sets each. My pull-ups keep going up, feels good! I did: 27, 23, 18, 16, 13. That’s a lot considering how fucking weak I had gotten. Man, I’m really excited to get out and fight again! I never fully realized how much I truly LOVE the sport. Just like 13 weeks to go!! Anyway, my toe ended up not getting infected, the toe nail is beginning to reform but looks weird… I hope it doesn’t grow back all funky… I’ve always prided myself on having nice feet… lol. What else…”
“On another subject, a really odd/gay one, my neighbor and I overheard the 2 black dudes downstairs from us talking into the vent. We stumbled on to the conversation as one of them said that he had woken up with a dick in his mouth… lol. (Not here, he was recounting a story.) He then said he got up and told the dude he better put his knuckles up cuz they’re gonna fight. Then he said “the nigga knew brazilian jiu-jitsu and choked me out, when I woke up the nigga was fuckin me.” LMAO!! And dude was laughing about it?? He said the dude helped him hostage for 3 days and kept fucking him. Then he said, “the fucked up shit is that I still call the nigga.” HAHAHA!! WTF!? Shit was the funniest story to ever eavesdrop on! And these are some “gangsters.” They were talking about it like it was nothing, an every day occurrence… W-E-I-R-D. Another gay story involves this Mexican dude, he’s all gangstered out, even with tattoos on his face. When he 1st discovered that I used to do porn he asked if he could see my dick, he said he wanted to see a “real porn dick.” I told him that I wasn’t one of those porn guys with a giant dong. He kept insisting I show it to him, which is odd enough, but the look in his eyes… G-A-Y. Obviously I didn’t show it to him. After that he’d always make lil’ gay remarks, jokingly, but definitely not joking. Also, whenever I’d stop at his door to talk to him, I feel real uncomfortable like I’m being raped by his eyes… lol. I never told anyone shit but then my neighbor brought up the fact that he thinks one of the “homies” is gay. He wouldn’t tell me the name, so I blurted out the name I suspected and he’s like, “how’d you know!?” LOL… so yeah now we both crack gay jokes at him, playingly, but not. I’unno, it’s just so strange to see gangster dudes be gay… funny.”
“Anyway, that’s the deal with this Barry Bonds shit? WTF!? How irrensponsible is our government to waste millions on his perjury trial!? People perjure themselves daily on far more important criminal matters and are not charged at all! Plus everyone knows that like 70% of ALL professional athletes use or have used steroids, so fucking what!? It’s like anything else – they try to get away with it and the authorities try and catch them, cat and mouse. When they fail a drug test, they get suspended/fined and when they pass, they pass. Fucking LAME, fucking witch hunt, fucking waste of time and money. FUCK THE MEDIA.”
WEEK 39 – APRIL 17, 2011
“Here I am stuck in a tiny cell… boring! At least I’m faded. =) And I got 2 ridiculously hot whores from an American Curves magazine on my wall… lol. Jerk-off sesh tonight!! Man…”
“I guess it’s pretty common for guys to do this while in prison… They take apart a razor and cut a slice in the top of their dick (the shaft), and then they shove a marble, or some type of round object, in the wound, so that it heals and remains a lump under the skin… crazy right!? They claim it “gets chicks off easier” with a good size marble embedded in the top of their cock… I dunno about that, but I do know I’d never do ANY kind of operation, on my most valued body part, in dirty ass jail. What if you got a fucked up infection and lost all or part of your dick?? Fuck that shit!! So far, the weirdest prison tradition I’ve come across. Funny, my neighbor just asked this black dude if he liked Kool-Aid and he answered, “course I do, I’m black.” LMAO! I’unno, thought I’d share that, I found it funny.”
“Alright, I only have 3 months left, release is coming soon! I’m excited, this has been a horrible waste of time! One good thing though is now it is engrained in my brains to NEVER “go out” EVER AGAIN! I know if I follow those guidelines I will not get in more trouble. I’ve known that for a while now, but I guess I needed a fucking wake-up call. My stubborn ass always has to learn shit the hard way. Speaking of people learning the hard way, you have no idea how many guys have told me, “Ay, War Machine, if you ever need someone blasted look me up, I can handle that for the right price.” These fools don’t even know me. They just know that I’m aggressive but plan to stay outta trouble when I get out. They think I have mad cash and they can make a buck killing fools I hate. I won’t lie, of course the idea sounds lovely, but this one year in jail is enough to know I don’t want to do shit to risk coming back. I guess these guys don’t “learn” because they have nothing promising to look forward to on the “outside.” If it wasn’t for my hopes, dreams, and opportunities, I wouldn’t have “learned” either though.”
WEEK 40 – APRIL 25, 2011
“Anyway, me and a couple other guys have been waging war on these 2 loud, obnoxious assholes who love to yell and bang their door all day and night. Our weapon of choice by default, is of course shit bombs… LMAO! We have been bombing their cells twice/day for 4 days straight and since the Deps hate them too, they don’t even clean it out, they let them sit in shit for HOURS at a time. I mean these fuckers sit in shit for like 6 hrs. at a time! It ook 3 days for one of them to finally shut up! The other one is still at it! WTF!? The other day I got a purple heart though…. ugh… GROSS! I stomped on a bag of shit so that it’d shoot under the door and all over their cell, well half of it did… the other half exploded out of the wrong end and all over ME! I mean I had shit in my fucking hair, all over my pant leg, it was horrible! LMAO!”
“A lot of the [Deputies]. here are real cool man. I really like some of them. I see exchanging #’s with a few of them before I leave. Probably get a few of them to join my gym too. Before I got here, I’d always say “fuck cops, I hate cops,” but the more I’m around them, I see that most of them are just guys doing a job. It’s not their fault that the system creates B.S. laws that they have to enforce.
The problem comes from the asshole cops; they ruin it for the rest of them. Speaking of which, I discovered a new one on duty on occassion in my module who has it out for me. The real problem is that he’s a bitch, straight coward mother fucker and plays like he likes me but is just doing his job. 1st, at inspection, he hit my cell extra tough and got all my contraband, no biggy. Couple days later when I was in the shower he snuck into my cell and hit it AGAIn, which is totally out of the ordinary! He took my contraband items again! When he did his walk later (now I’m back locked down), I asked him why he did that? And asked why he doesn’t like me or whatever? He played all nice like, “at inspection you didn’t hide your stuff good enough (B.S.) and earlier, when you showered, I only entered your cell because you had something out in the open. I don’t have a problem with you, I actually like you.” LMAO! Yeah right. NOTHING was out in the open, fool just wants to fuck my day! Later that same night, a loud asshole got shit bombed and he wrote me up for it! Fact is it could have been the guy who got dayroom before me, or me, and the camera doesn’t show the top tier here. The report said he saw me do it! LIE!! Now I’m on 10 day lockdown. Since I’m already in the hole, it means no visits, phone calls, store orders and no 1 hr. dayroom every other day, just a 10 min. shower instead. Cops here don’t write you up for shit bombing the loud assholes, they don’t care. The next day the Deps asked “why are you on D.I.? Who wrote you up? What’d you do to piss him off?” NOTHING, proof, he hates me but doesn’t have the balls to just say it. Lame asshole, at least he doesn’t work our module often. I would talk shit to him, but I don’t want him fucking with my mail; throwing it away and shit before I get it.”
